The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

panhandle spurge

Habit Herbs, perennial, with cylindric rootstock.
Stems

erect, branched, densely clumped, previous year’s dead stems often persistent, 30–70 cm, glabrous.

Leaves

alternate, persisting, spreading or ascending;

stipules to 0.1 mm;

petiole absent;

blade linear to narrowly oblanceolate, (20–)40–70 × (2–)4–5 mm, base narrowly cuneate, margins entire, apex broadly acute, surfaces glabrous;

venation obscure, only midvein conspicuous on wider leaves.

Involucre

campanulate or hemispheric, 1.2–2.4 × 2.2–3.2 mm, pilose;

glands 5, green, broadly elliptic, 0.7–0.8 × 1.3–1.6 mm;

appendages white, forming narrow rim around distal margin of gland, 0.2 × 1.5–1.8 mm, entire or erose.

Staminate flowers

20–25.

Pistillate flowers

ovary strigillose to tomentulose;

styles 0.4–0.6 mm, 2-fid at apex.

Capsules

globose, all 3 locules fertile, 3.2–4.5 × 4–6.5 mm, sparsely strigillose;

columella 2.5–3.9 mm.

Seeds

gray-green to gray-brown, ovoid, 3.8 × 3 mm, shallowly and obscurely pitted;

caruncle absent.

Cyathia

in terminal dichasia;

peduncle (2–)4–12(–18) mm proximal and mid peduncles and cyathia abscising early, sparsely to moderately strigose to sericeous.

Euphorbia strictior

Phenology Flowering and fruiting spring–fall.
Habitat Open grasslands and uplands.
Elevation 900–1400 m. (3000–4600 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
NM; TX
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Euphorbia strictior is confined to a small area of the Texas Panhandle and adjacent New Mexico. The species is closely related to E. aaron-rossii and E. wrightii; it can be distinguished from E. wrightii by its larger stature, shorter and less petaloid involucral gland appendages, and early abscising proximal and mid cyathia and peduncles. Euphorbia strictior also tends to develop all three seeds in the capsule, whereas E. wrightii tends to develop only two.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 12, p. 251.
Parent taxa Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Alectoroctonum
Sibling taxa
E. aaron-rossii, E. abramsiana, E. acuta, E. agraria, E. albomarginata, E. alta, E. angusta, E. antisyphilitica, E. arizonica, E. astyla, E. austrotexana, E. bicolor, E. bifurcata, E. bilobata, E. blodgettii, E. bombensis, E. brachycera, E. capitellata, E. carunculata, E. chaetocalyx, E. chamaesula, E. cinerascens, E. commutata, E. conferta, E. cordifolia, E. corollata, E. crenulata, E. cumulicola, E. cuphosperma, E. curtisii, E. cyathophora, E. cyparissias, E. davidii, E. deltoidea, E. dendroides, E. dentata, E. discoidalis, E. eriantha, E. exigua, E. exserta, E. exstipulata, E. falcata, E. fendleri, E. florida, E. floridana, E. garberi, E. georgiana, E. geyeri, E. glyptosperma, E. golondrina, E. gracillima, E. graminea, E. helioscopia, E. helleri, E. heterophylla, E. hexagona, E. hirta, E. hooveri, E. humistrata, E. hypericifolia, E. hyssopifolia, E. indivisa, E. innocua, E. inundata, E. ipecacuanhae, E. jaegeri, E. jejuna, E. laredana, E. lasiocarpa, E. lata, E. lathyris, E. longicruris, E. lurida, E. macropus, E. maculata, E. marginata, E. meganaesos, E. melanadenia, E. mendezii, E. mercurialina, E. mesembrianthemifolia, E. micromera, E. misera, E. missurica, E. myrsinites, E. nephradenia, E. nutans, E. oblongata, E. ocellata, E. ophthalmica, E. ouachitana, E. parishii, E. parryi, E. pediculifera, E. peplidion, E. peplus, E. perennans, E. pergamena, E. pinetorum, E. platyphyllos, E. platysperma, E. polycarpa, E. polygonifolia, E. polyphylla, E. porteriana, E. prostrata, E. pubentissima, E. purpurea, E. radians, E. rayturneri, E. revoluta, E. roemeriana, E. rosescens, E. schizoloba, E. serpens, E. serpillifolia, E. serrata, E. serrula, E. setiloba, E. simulans, E. spathulata, E. stictospora, E. telephioides, E. terracina, E. tetrapora, E. texana, E. theriaca, E. thymifolia, E. tithymaloides, E. trachysperma, E. trichotoma, E. vallis-mortae, E. velleriflora, E. vermiculata, E. villifera, E. virgata, E. wrightii, E. yaquiana
Name authority Holzinger: Contr. U.S. Natl. Herb. 1: 214, plate 18. (1892)
Web links