SPURGE FAMILY EUPHORBIACEAE 
FLOWERING SPURGE 
Euphorbia corollata L. 
The Flowering Spurge is the prettiest and most conspicuous 
Spurge in the state. It is frequently used as a cut flower under 
the name White Forget-me-not. It is common everywhere in 
rich or sandy soil from 
Massachusetts to Ontario 
and Minnesota, south to 
Florida and Texas, and 
it blooms from July to 
October. 
This Spurge is perennial 
by along stout underground 
stem. The upright stem is 
10-36 inches high, usually 
unbranched up to the umbellike in- 
florescence, and contains an abundance 
of milky juice. The lower leaves are 
alternate, those of the inflorescence are 
opposite, and usually those just below 
the umbel are whorled. 
The flowers are clustered within a 
s-lobed involucre that is white and 
resembles a corolla. It bears 5 large 
yellowish green glands between the 
lobes at the base. Several staminate 
flowers line the base of the involucre, 
each consisting merely of a single 
stamen. The 1 pistillate flower is in the 
middle of the involucre and consists of 
a 3-lobed and 3-celled ovary, and 3 
styles which are 2-lobed also. 
The Spreading eee Euphorbia humistrata Engelm., is a 
species very common on lawns. It often kills the grass and in 
autumn becomes reddish and causes unsightly spots. It grows 
prostrate; the involucres are small and, unlike those of the 
Flowering Spurge, inconspicuous. The leaves are elliptical to 
obovate, toothed toward the apex and sparsely hairy underneath. 
The pod fruits are sharply angled and minutely covered with 
short soft hairs. The seeds are red, ovate, blunt angled, minutely 
roughened and one twenty-fifth of an inch long. 
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