268 EUPHORBIACEAE (SPURGE FAMILY) 



usually hairy. Leaves oblong-ovate, pointed, entire, sessile, those 

 on the stalk few and scattered, with a whorl at the base of the 

 umbel, which has usually three fork-branched rays; the bracts 

 subtending the involucres are large, numerous, whorled, broadly 

 margined with white, very showy ; involucres clustered in the center, 

 bellshaped, softly downy, bearing five glands subtended by white, 

 kidney-shaped appendages. Capsule depressed, with rounded lobes, 

 usually hairy ; seeds bluntly ovoid, dark ash-gray, netted, and 

 tubercled. 



Means of control 



Cut repeatedly, close to the ground, permitting no seed to be 

 perfected. 



FLOWERING SPURGE 



Euphdrbia corollata, L. 



Other English names: White-flowered Milkweed, Poison Milkweed. 



Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds and by rootstocks. 



Time of bloom : June to October. 



Seed-time: July to November. 



Range: Ontario to Minnesota, southward to Kansas, Texas, 



Louisiana, and Florida. 

 Habitat: Dry fields, old pastures, waste places. 



The deep, perennial rootstocks of this weed make it very dif- 

 ficult to suppress. Grazing animals usually avoid it, seeming to 

 know the quality of its milky sap, which is acrid and strongly 

 emetic. 



Stem ten inches to two feet or more in height, bright green, erect, 

 smooth or sometimes slightly hairy, often spotted, unbranched 

 below the flower-cluster. Leaves narrowly oblong to lance-shape, 

 obtuse at apex, smooth, rather thick, entire, one or two inches 

 long, sessile or with very short petioles ; those at the base of the 

 umbel whorled, but those on the stem scattering. Rays of the 

 umbel slender, usually five, each again twice or thrice fork-branched, 

 the flowers at the base of the forks being several weeks earlier than 

 the terminal ones ; involucres on long peduncles, the five greenish 

 yellow glands at the tip being subtended by large, white, rounded 

 appendages simulating petals. Pod smooth, containing three 



