EUPHORBIACEAE JATROPHA 



5. Euphborbia L. Spurge 



597 



. 



Monoecious shrubs or herbs with alternate or opposite, verticillate leaves ; 

 flowers involucrate, involucres resembling a calyx or corolla, bearing a large 

 thick gland in the sinuses; staminate flowers consist of a single jointed stamen 

 on a filament-like pedicel; pistillate flower solitary at the bottom of the involucre 

 consisting of a 3-lobed and 3-celled ovary; capsule at maturity breaking into 

 3-lobed 1-seeded carpels; seeds frequently caruncled, smooth, variously pitted. 

 About 700 species, chiefly in warmer regions. A few are weedy, some poison- 

 ous and some planted for ornamental purposes. The milky juice of the Brazil- 

 ian E. hetcrodoxa produces a ferment which acts much like papain. 



Euphorbia Presilii Guss. Large Spotted Spurge 



An ascending, erect annual from 1-2 feet high, opposite oblique leaves, which 

 are ovate, oblong or oblong-linear, falcate, serrate, usually with a red spot 

 or red margins; stipules triangular; flowers collected in a loose terminal cyme; 

 appendages entire, white or red; pod smooth, angled; seeds small, blackish, 

 ovate, obtusely angled, wrinkled, and tubercled. 



Distribution. Common in eastern North America west to the Rocky Moun- 

 tains. 



Euphorbia maculata L. Spotted Spurge 



A prostrate spreading, hairy annual ; leaves oblong-linear, pubescent or 

 smooth, oblique at base, serrate above, small brownish spots on leaves ; stipules 

 lanceolate, fimbriate ; flowers monoecious, included in a 4-5-lobed involucre; 

 glands of the involucre minute; peduncles as long as the petioles, in dense 

 clusters ; pods minutely pubescent ; seeds sharply 4-angled, having 4 shallow 

 grooves, whitish. 



Fig. 333. Spotted Spurge (Euphorbia maculata). Common roadside plant. Probably 

 poisonous. (C. M. King). 



