- Plants
- ›Vascular Plants
- ›flowering plants
- ›Dicots
- ›Nances, Willows, and Allies
- ›Spurge Family
- ›Euphorbioideae
- ›Euphorbieae
- ›Euphorbiinae
- ›Euphorbia
- ›Chamaesyce
Alectoroctonum
Euphorbia is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants, commonly called spurge, in the family Euphorbiaceae.
Euphorbias all share the feature of having a poisonous, latex-like sap and unique floral structures. When viewed as a whole, the head of flowers looks like a single flower (a pseudanthium). It has a unique kind of pseudanthium, called a cyathium, where each flower in the head is reduced to its barest essential part needed for sexual reproduction. The individual flowers are either male or female, with the male flowers reduced to only the stamen, and the females to the pistil. These flowers have no sepals, petals, or other parts that are typical of flowers in other kinds of plants. Structures supporting the flower head and other structures underneath have evolved to attract pollinators with nectar, and with shapes and colors that function in a way petals and other flower parts do in other flowers. It is the only genus of plants that has all three kinds of photosynthesis; CAM, C3, and C4.
60 branches of this group, most-observed first
flowering spurge
speciesEuphorbia corollata
snow-on-the-mountain
speciesEuphorbia marginata
snow-on-the-prairie
speciesEuphorbia bicolor
Grassleaf Spurge
speciesEuphorbia graminea
Mexican shrubby spurge
speciesEuphorbia cotinifolia
False Flowering Spurge
speciesEuphorbia pubentissima
cliff spurge
speciesEuphorbia misera
candelilla
speciesEuphorbia antisyphilitica
pascuita
speciesEuphorbia leucocephala
Carolina ipecac
speciesEuphorbia ipecacuanhae
Cumberland spurge
speciesEuphorbia mercurialina
Lesser Florida Spurge
speciesEuphorbia polyphylla
Baja Spurge
speciesEuphorbia xanti
Euphorbia californica
speciesEuphorbia californica
Curtis's spurge
speciesEuphorbia curtisii
summer spurge
speciesEuphorbia discoidalis
Huachuca Mountain Spurge
speciesEuphorbia macropus
Euphorbia rossiana
speciesEuphorbia rossiana
Coastal Sand Spurge
speciesEuphorbia exserta
Euphorbia sphaerorhiza
speciesEuphorbia sphaerorhiza
Sixangle Spurge
speciesEuphorbia hexagona
Euphorbia schlechtendalii
speciesEuphorbia schlechtendalii
Euphorbia cymosa
speciesEuphorbia cymosa
Hinds Spurge
speciesEuphorbia hindsiana
Euphorbia ceroderma
speciesEuphorbia ceroderma
Euphorbia dioscoreoides
speciesEuphorbia dioscoreoides
Euphorbia ariensis
speciesEuphorbia ariensis
Euphorbia lancifolia
speciesEuphorbia lancifolia
manchineel berry
speciesEuphorbia petiolaris
Wright's Spurge
speciesEuphorbia wrightii
Euphorbia lagunensis
speciesEuphorbia lagunensis
Euphorbia colletioides
speciesEuphorbia colletioides
blackseed spurge
speciesEuphorbia bilobata
Euphorbia subreniformis
speciesEuphorbia subreniformis
Velvet Spurge
speciesEuphorbia innocua
Euphorbia apocynifolia
speciesEuphorbia apocynifolia
Euphorbia montereyana
speciesEuphorbia montereyana
Euphorbia breedlovei
speciesEuphorbia breedlovei
Scarlet-plume
speciesEuphorbia fulgens
Euphorbia viridis
speciesEuphorbia viridis
Euphorbia xalapensis
speciesEuphorbia xalapensis
Euphorbia gentryi
speciesEuphorbia gentryi
panhandle spurge
speciesEuphorbia strictior
Euphorbia insulana
speciesEuphorbia insulana
Euphorbia succedanea
speciesEuphorbia succedanea
Euphorbia misella
speciesEuphorbia misella
Paria spurge
speciesEuphorbia nephradenia
Euphorbia ocymoidea
speciesEuphorbia ocymoidea
Euphorbia mexiae
speciesEuphorbia mexiae
Euphorbia ixtlana
speciesEuphorbia ixtlana
West Indian spurge
speciesEuphorbia oerstediana
Euphorbia acerensis
speciesEuphorbia acerensis
Euphorbia segoviensis
speciesEuphorbia segoviensis
Euphorbia macvaughii
speciesEuphorbia macvaughii
Euphorbia delicatula
speciesEuphorbia delicatula
Euphorbia guadalajarana
speciesEuphorbia guadalajarana
Euphorbia sarcoceras
speciesEuphorbia sarcoceras
Euphorbia francoana
speciesEuphorbia francoana
Euphorbia subpeltata
speciesEuphorbia subpeltata
Euphorbia tricolor
speciesEuphorbia tricolor
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Alectoroctonum in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 792271.