Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Eastern toothed spurge

EASTERN TOOTHED SPURGE

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Euphorbia dentata Michx.

Konza Prairie, Riley County, Kansas

Annual

Height: 6-24 inches

Family: Euphorbiaceae - Spurge Family

Flowering Period: July, August, September,October

Stems:

Erect or ascending, branched, principally pilose, longer hairs proximal to inflorescence fragile and spreading; sap milky.

Leaves:

Mostly opposite, upper sometimes alternate; stipules absent or minute and gland-like; petiole .2 to .8 inch, pilose; blade narrowly lanceolate to rhombic or suborbiculate, 1.2 to 2.8 inches long, .16 to 1.4 inch wide, base symmetric, acute to obtuse or truncate, margins usually coarsely crenate-dentate, rarely crenate, tip acute to acuminate, lower surfaces pilose, upper surfaces sparsely pilose to glabrate.

Inflorescences:

Cup-shaped receptacles, terminal, subtended by pale green- or white-based bracts, or bracts entirely green; peduncle less than 1/25 inch; involucres bell-shaped, .15 inch long, .07 inch wide, glabrous; glands (1-)2, green, obconic; appendage absent.

Flowers:

Staminate flowers 8-10; sepals 0; petals 0; stamen 1; pistillate flower: sepals 0; petals 0; ovary glabrous, styles 2-cleft for 3/4 to 1/2 their length.

Fruits:

Capsules depressed-globose, 3-lobed, 1/10 to 1/8 inch, glabrous; seeds gray to black, usually not strongly mottled, ovoid, uniformly finely-pitted; caruncle present.

Habitat:

Oak-hickory woodlands, flood plains, thickets, rocky tallgrass prairies, roadsides, gardens, disturbed sites.

Distribution:

East 1/3 of Kansas

Origin:

Native

Toxicity:

Poisonous to livestock, but the flowers, fruits, and leaves are eaten by the wild turkey.

Comments:

Named for Euphorbus, 1st century Greek physcian, and dentata, toothed, alluding to the leaf margins.

Eastern toothed spurge inflorescence