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Petty Spurge

Euphorbia peplus

Photo by Leuba Ridgway
Published on Project Noah
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Field Notes

Description:

A small herbaceous plant about 24cm tall with bright green almost sessile ovate leaves arranged opposite to each other.
Flowers are small and yellow. Fruits on stalks are small and form attractive 3-compartment capsules. The lower part of the main stem of the plant was tinged red (as is common in some non-succulent euphorbia). The plant produced a white sap when cut.

Habitat:

moist woodlands

Notes:

These plants are perhaps not as attractive or interesting as others in the Euphorbiaceae family however, they are everywhere in moist forests and gullies. They add an attractive bright touch to the landscape.

This was previously incorrectly labelled as E.amygdaloides ( wood spurge), which it resembles. the latter is however a much taller and bushy perennial. My thanks to Vinny for the correct ID. <br>

Family: Euphorbiaceae

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (2)

Euphorbia peplus perhaps?
They are beautiful when one looks up close at the details
Photographed
PublishedJanuary 17, 2012

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