Euphorbia hirta
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Image 1
Habit
18 Dec 2009
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Habit
18 Dec 2009
Image 3
Leaves, stems and flowers
18 Dec 2009
Image 4
Flowers and fruit
18 Dec 2009
| Family: | Euphorbiaceae |
| Full name: | Euphorbia hirta L. |
| ID status: | ID not 100% certain |
| Afrikaans common name(s): | Rooi melkkruid, Rooi euphorbia |
| English common name(s): | Hairy spurge, Red euphorbia, Australian asthma plant, Garden spurge, Snakeweed, Red milkweed, Asthma weed |
| Synonym(s): | Chamaesyce hirta (L.) Millsp. Euphorbia hirta L. var. procumbens (Boiss.) N.E.Br. Euphorbia pilulifera Boiss. var. procumbens |
| Status: | Alien |
| Description: | Prostrate or ascending annual herb with branches up to 50 cm. Parts of the plant covered in short appressed hairs, interspersed with longer spreading hairs. Leaves ovate, 1-4 cm, often blotched with purple, particularly in the centre; margin finely toothed. Inflorescences terminal and axillary, spherical, 10-15 mm in diameter. Flowers unisexual, whitish, tinged with purple. (from Flora of Zimbabwe website) Annual herb, usually prostrate, pilose with white appressed hairs interspersed by yellow spreading hairs. Leaves ovate, 1–4 x 0.5–2 cm, margin finely toothed, upper surface often blotched with purple; petiole 1–3.5 mm long; stipules linear, to 2.5 mm long. Cyathia in dense capitate cymes to 1.5 cm in diam. on peduncles 5–15 mm long, occasionally subtended by 1–2 leafy bracts. Cyathia 0.8 mm in diam.; glands minute, green to purplish, with minute entire white to pink appendages. Styles bifid almost to the base. Capsule just exserted, acutely 3-lobed, 1 x 1.25 mm, pilose with short yellow appressed hairs. Seeds oblong-conical, 0.8 x 0.4 mm, with shallow transverse wrinkles, pinkish brown. (from JSTOR website / Flora Somalia) Annual, 1.5–16 in. high; stems erect or decumbent at the base, simple or dichotomously branching, rather coarsely pilose with yellow spreading hairs, usually densely at the upper part, thinly below, with an under pubescence of minute curved subadpressed hairs; leaves opposite, 0.333–2 in. long, 0167– 0.75 in. broad, obliquely lanceolate or ovate or rhomboid-oblong, acute or subobtuse, on one side of the midrib cuneate at the base, on the other rounded, finely serrate, thinly adpressed-pubescent on both sides, more minutely so or sometimes glabrous above; petiole 0.6–1.5 lin. long; stipules minute, subulate; cymes axillary, 0.25– 0.5 in. in diam., globose or dichotomously divided into 2–3 globose heads, with peduncles 1–6 lin. long, puberulous with minute curved hairs; involucres densely crowded, male or bisexual, minute, about 0.333 lin. long, campanulate, obconic or cup-like, with 4 glands and 5 deltoid acute fringed lobes; glands linear viewed sideways, orbicular and 0.125– 0.0833 lin. in diam. at the truncate apex as seen from above, with a very minute appendage; capsule exserted and curved to one side, 3-angled, 0.5 lin. in diam., thinly puberulous with minute adpressed curved hairs; styles free, 0.125 lin. long, deeply divided into 2 slender, truncate arms; seeds about 0.333 lin. long, oblong, 4-angled, with slight transverse rugosities, light reddish. (from JSTOR website / Flora Capensis) Annual herb, prostrate to ascending, with branches to 50 cm long; whole plant pilose, including inflorescence and capsules, with minute white appressed hairs interspersed by yellow spreading segmented hairs c. 1.5 mm long principally on the branches and especially on younger growth. Leaves with a petiole to 3.5 mm long; stipules to 2.5 mm long, linear, rarely laciniate on lush specimens; lamina 1–4 x 0.5–2 cm, ovate, apex subacute, base very obliquely rounded, margin finely toothed, upper surface sometimes almost glabrous, often blotched with purple especially in the region of the midrib. Cymes terminal and axillary, densely capitate to 15 mm diameter on peduncles to 15(20) mm long, occasionally subtended by 1–2 leaf-like bracts c. 1 cm long; cyathial peduncles to 1 mm long. Bracts to 1 mm long, deltoid, deeply laciniate. Cyathia c. 0.8 x 0.8 mm, with cup-shaped involucres, usually tinged purple; glands 4, minute, elliptical, green or purplish, with minute entire white to pink appendages; lobes triangular, fimbriate. Male flowers: bracteoles linear, fimbriate; stamens 1 mm long. Female flower: ovary shortly pedicellate; styles 0.4 mm long, spreading, bifid almost to the base, with thickened apices. Capsule just exserted on a pedicel 1 mm long, 1 x 1.25 mm, acutely 3-lobed with truncate base, pilose with short yellow appressed hairs. Seeds 0.8 x 0.4 mm, oblong-conical with obscure transverse wrinkles, pinkish-brown. (from JSTOR website / Flora Zambesiaca) |
| Link(s) |
African Plant Database
JSTOR Plant Science Kew Herbarium Catalogue BGBM Berlin-Dahlem - Virtual Herbarium Züricher Herbarien Flora of Zimbabwe Fleurs de notre Terre - Galerie Namibie |
| Content last updated: | 22 Nov 2011 |
