APETALiE 237 



Wood Spurge {Euphorbia amygdaloides). 



As the English name impHes this species is a 

 native in woods. The name was appHed by Turner. 

 The specific name has reference to the almond-shaped 

 leaves. 



Local in distribution, Wood Spurge occurs in 

 England generally, being more common in the south. 

 In Ireland it is found near Bandon and Donegal. It 

 is also indigenous in the Channel Islands. 



Woods, thickets, shady places, hedgerows, are the 

 habitat of this plant. It is found on clays and loams 

 in the damp oakwood association. 



In habit it has the Spurge habit. The rootstock 

 is woody. The stems are erect, reddish, stout, leafy, 

 barren the first year, lengthening the next and giving 

 off branches which bear flowers. The plant is smooth 

 or but slightly hairy. The leaves are alternate, 

 inversely ovate to lance-shaped, entire, blunt or acute. 

 The lower leaves are stalked, and the upper leaves, 

 sometimes oblong, are stalkless. The leaves on 

 the stem are, as is usual, much crowded towards the 

 middle. The upper leaves are not so long and more 

 distant. 



The flowers are borne in an umbel of five to ten 

 long rays, which are forked and bifid, or divided 

 nearly to the base into two. The involucres are 

 broad, with slender stalks. The bracts are yellow, 

 rounded, united below into a rounded limb. There 

 may be a few axillary fiower-stalks below the ray. 



