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Adriatic Spurge / Jadranska mlječika
Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii
45.0667, 13.6288
Field Notes
Description:
Euphorbia can be annuals, perennials, shrubs or succulents, with milky sap and small flowers held within cupped, often colorful bracts. Grows in semi-arid and Mediterranean climates. This plant is sensitive to frost, so it only grows on protected and sunny mountainsides in hilly areas. It is an erect, sparsely-branched medium-sized sub-shrub with oblong, grey-green evergreen foliage often known among the local kids as little palms, and large rounded heads of greenish-yellow flowers and flower bracts, with yellow-green nectar glands, in spring.
Habitat:
Euphorbia characias is called Mediterranean spurge and it has a wide distribution in the Mediterranean Basin while this subspecies is endemic and can be found only on Adriatic coast where is it very common plant on every more rocky terrain. Thrives in dry conditions.
Naturally it only grows by itself, wild in the alkaline limy karst areas that abound in limestone and dolomite or semi-saline soil (alkaline pH = 7 - 9), exactly like the area shown on the photos, it is no more than 5 m far from the sea and grows in a very rocky terrain, old Roman quarry.
More detailed information about each location and its characteristics is given here in Croatian: http://palmapedia.com/index.php?topic=3163.0;wap2
Notes:
This bush also has uses in traditional medicine; like many other species of genus Euphorbia its toxic white and sticky sap has been used to treat skin excrescences, like cancers, tumors, and warts since ancient times. It may cause dermatitis in sensitive individuals.
Other names: sarâb (Kvarner islands) and lumbrosik (Dalmatian islands).
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