Euphorbia chersina
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Image 1
Habit
20 Feb 2018
Image 2
Stems
20 Feb 2018
| Family: | Euphorbiaceae |
| Full name: | Euphorbia chersina N.E.Br. |
| ID status: | Fairly certain |
| Afrikaans common name(s): | - |
| English common name(s): | Desert euphorbia |
| Synonym(s): | - |
| Status: | Native |
| Description: | A dwarf much-branched bush, apparently less than 1 ft. high, leafless and spineless, with a succulent bark; primary branches or stems of the specimens seen 3.5–6 in. long, 2.75–3.5 lin. thick, dichotomously branched so as to form a flattish-topped cyme 5–6 in. across, terete, glabrous, perhaps glaucous, but not papillate nor asperate; branches opposite, diverging from each other at an angle of 90°–130°, stout, with internodes 0.333–2 in. long; leaves rudimentary, opposite, persisting for a short time, sessile, scale-like, 0.75 lin. long, deltoid-ovate, acute, concave, glabrous, spreading or recurved, blackish; cymes terminal on the ultimate forkings of the branches and stem, sessile, very small (about 0.25– 0.333 in. in diam.) and dense, nearly all fallen from the specimens seen; bracts 0.5 lin. long, scale-like, broadly deltoid-ovate, subacute, adpressed to the involucres or finally spreading, keeled, glabrous, reddish-brown or blackish-brown; involucres sessile, 1 lin. in diam., 0.75 lin. deep, cup-shaped, glabrous outside, with 5 glands and 5 broadly cuneate ciliate lobes, apparently purple; glands about 0.5 lin. in their greater diam., transverse, narrowly oblong, entire, with the inner margins turned up, forming a slight lip; ovary oblong, obtusely 3-angled, glabrous, with a small obtusely 3-lobed calyx at its base, finally just exserted from the involucre on a short pedicel, erect; styles 0.5 lin. long, very shortly united at the base, ascending-spreading, minutely 2-lobed at the apex; capsule and seeds not seen. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora Capensis) Dense, much-branched, stiff shrublet, up to 0.6 m high. Stems yellow-green, cylindrical, with forks of 90-130° between side branches; branchlets stubby, hardly tapering. Leaves scale-like, deciduous, thus often absent. Inflorescence terminal, sessile. Male and female flowers on separate plants. Glands yellow, with margin entire. Flowering winter to spring. Capsules sessile, subglobose in outline, 3-angled, reddish-green to red, smooth, often shiny, brown when ripe. This species is common on rocky outcrops in coastal areas and mountains, sometimes on plains that receive moisture from fog. Its distribution stretches from Luderitz all the way to Port Nolloth in South Africa. Its apparent requirement for fog limits its eastern distribution. (from Wildflowers of the southern Namib by Coleen Mannheimer) |
| Link(s) |
African Plant Database
JSTOR Plant Science Kew Herbarium Catalogue BGBM Berlin-Dahlem - Virtual Herbarium Züricher Herbarien iNaturalist (Namibia / Alex Dreyer) iNaturalist (Namibia) iNaturalist (southern Africa) Flora of Zimbabwe Fleurs de notre Terre - Galerie Namibie Tree Atlas of Namibia |
| Content last updated: | 18 Apr 2024 |
