spurge
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What is a spurge plant?
A spurge is any of over 2,100 species in the genus Euphorbia, part of the spurge family Euphorbiaceae. Spurge plants can be herbs, shrubs, trees, or vines found worldwide, especially in temperate and tropical regions.
Many species are grown as ornamentals, used as sources for medicines, or are considered agricultural weeds. The milky sap of some spurges can cause skin irritation or blindness. Some spurge plants are poisonous to eat or touch.
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What does a spurge plant look like?
The spurge (Euphorbia) genus is a diverse group of flowering plants with at least 2,100 species in the family Euphorbiaceae. Spurge plants can vary greatly in appearance.
Some examples of spurge plants include:
* Candelabrum tree: A spined, succulent, cactus-like tree that can grow to 15 meters tall
* Crown of thorns: A somewhat climbing, thorned, leafy, woody-stemmed plant
* Poinsettia: A tropical euphorbia from southern Mexico and Guatemala with scarlet bracts
* Scarlet plume: A shrub with slender stems and scarlet bract clusters
* Cypress spurge: A globe-shaped plant with needlelike foliage and golden bracts in spring
* Snow-on-the-mountain: An annual ornamental native to North AmericaSpurge plants can be found worldwide, with many species in arid parts of Africa and India that resemble cactus plants.
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Where do spurge plants commonly grow?
Spurge plants (genus Euphorbia) are a large, diverse genus of flowering plants with at least 2,100 species, found worldwide but mostly in temperate or tropical regions. Many species are found in arid parts of Africa and India and resemble cactus plants.
Spurge plants can be annual and perennial herbs, woody shrubs or trees, and climbers. Some, like the weedy North American prostrate spurge (E. supine), can be found growing out of sidewalk cracks, while others, like E. candelabrum and E. nyikae from East Africa, are spined, succulent, 15-meter-tall trees.
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What are some common types of spurge?
The spurge genus (Euphorbia) is a large, diverse group of flowering plants with at least 2,100 species. Some common types include:
- Candelabrum tree A spined, succulent tree that can reach 49 feet tall
- Crown of thorns A climbing, thorned plant with leafy, woody stems
- Poinsettia A tropical plant with scarlet bracts, often associated with Christmas
- Snow-on-the-mountain An annual ornamental plant native to North America
- Flowering spurge A weedy species found in the eastern United States
Spurge plants have a milky latex and many are considered agricultural weeds, invasive species, or poisonous plants. The pill-bearing spurge (Euphorbia pilulifera) is a dried herb used in folk medicine to treat asthma.
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What special features or adaptations do spurge plants have?
Spurge plants (genus Euphorbia) are a diverse group with over 2,100 species, varying from herbs to shrubs and trees. Many species have adapted to arid environments and resemble cacti with spined, fleshy, angled stems. However, unlike cacti, spurges contain a milky, often poisonous sap.
A unique feature of spurges is their floral structure, called a cyathium, which includes a single female flower (pistil) surrounded by numerous single-stamen male flowers, all enclosed in a cup-shaped structure with lobes and glands. Their fruits are explosive three-seeded capsules. Some spurges are important ornamentals, drug sources, agricultural weeds, or invasive species.
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How are spurge plants used by people or animals, and are they ever harmful?
Spurge plants, from the genus Euphorbia, are a large, diverse group of flowering plants with at least 2,100 species. People use many species as ornamentals or as sources of drugs. The seeds of the European caper spurge were once used for their laxative effect.
However, spurge plants can also be harmful. Some are agricultural weeds and invasive species. The milky sap of some spurges can cause eye irritation, blistering of the skin, and swelling. In some instances, it can be used as an arrow poison.
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spurge, (genus Euphorbia), large and diverse genus of flowering plants in the family Euphorbiaceae, comprising at least 2,100 species. Many spurge species are important as ornamentals, as sources of drugs, or as agricultural weeds and invasive species. The genus takes its common name from a group of annual herbs used as purgatives, or spurges, mainly the 1-metre- (3.3-foot-) tall European caper spurge (Euphorbia lathyris), seeds of which were once used for their laxative effect. The diverse worldwide genus includes many species in arid parts of Africa and India that resemble cactus plants.
Physical description
Euphorbia plants vary from flat creeping herbs to shrubs and trees. Some are thorny succulents that resemble true cacti, but, unlike cacti, euphorbias have a milky, often poisonous sap. The unusual floral structures feature a single female flower consisting of a single female reproductive structure, the pistil, surrounded by numerous male flowers of one stamen each. All these reduced flowers are enclosed in a cup-shaped leaflike structure with five lobes and a gland on each, called a cyathium. Fruits are explosive three-seeded capsules.
Major species
The cactuslike kinds include spined, succulent (fleshy), and angled 15-metre- (49-foot-) tall trees such as candelabrum tree (E. candelabrum) and E. nyikae from East Africa, as well as spined and angled succulent shrubs such as cow’s horn (E. grandicornis) from southern Africa and mottled spurge (E. lactea) from the East Indies, both of which are grown as hedges in areas with a mild climate.
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Succulent but unthorned and with upright, 6-metre (20-foot), fingerlike, much-branched stems is milkbush (E. tirucalli) from India, used in Africa and many tropical places as a hedge for huts or cattle enclosures. Wax plant (E. antisyphilitica), from Mexico, has similar but unbranched, rodlike, gray-green, mostly naked, 1-metre (3.3-foot) stems from the surface of which comes an important wax used for polishes, candles, lubricants, and paper waterproofing.
The somewhat climbing, thorned, leafy, woody-stemmed crown of thorns (E. milii) from Madagascar is a popular houseplant in temperate areas and a good source of colour in tropical gardens.
What is probably the most appreciated of the tropical euphorbias is the poinsettia (E. pulcherrima) from southern Mexico and Guatemala, which has scarlet bracts (leaflike structures attached just below flowers) and is associated with Christmas. Another species associated with Christmas in southern Mexico and Central America, where it is native, is the shrub pascuita (E. leucocephala), 1.5 to 4 metres (5 to 13 feet) tall, which is covered much of the winter with a mist of small white bracts. In some varieties the leaves are dark red. The scarlet plume (E. fulgens), from Mexico, a 90-cm- (3-foot-) tall shrub with slender stems and scarlet bract clusters, is sometimes grown as a pot plant and in mild-winter areas as a garden shrub.
Perennial ornamentals of temperate climes include: cypress spurge (E. cyparissias), from Europe, a globe-shaped plant with needlelike foliage that is covered with golden bracts in spring; Mediterranean spurge (E. characias, subspecies wulfenii), from Europe, 0.9 to 1.2 metres (3 to 4 feet) tall with greenish yellow heads on bluish foliage; cushion spurge (E. epithymoides), from Europe, a 30.5-cm (12-inch) globe of gold to chartreuse that blooms in spring; and E. griffithii, from the Himalayas, the fireglow variety of which has fire-orange heads in early summer.
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Annual ornamentals include snow-on-the-mountain (E. marginata), native in the North American West; and many varieties of fire-on-the-mountain (E. heterophylla), from the eastern and central United States to Peru, with red-marked, poinsettia-like, green bracts and leaves of varied shape on 90-cm- (35-inch-) tall plants.
Important as weeds are flowering spurge (E. corollata), of the middle and eastern United States; the leafy spurge (E. escula), naturalized from Europe in the northern United States and adjacent Canada; spotted spurge (E. maculata); prostrate spurge and the related European petty spurge (E. peplus); and sun spurge (E. helioscopia). The weedy North American prostrate spurge (E. supine) is commonly found growing out of sidewalk cracks.
Some botanists previously divided the euphorbias into various now-defunct genera, including Chamaesyce, Poinsettia, Tithymalus, Tithymalopsis, and Dichrophyllum.