Plant Name
Scientific Name: Euphorbia radians
Synonym: Poinsettia radians
Common Name: Sun Spurge
Plant Characteristics
Duration: Perennial
Growth Habit: Herb/Forb
Arizona Native Status: Native
Habitat: Upland. This unusual wildflower grows in well-drained soil in dry, sunny, often disturbed or eroded areas in desert grasslands and in open oak, pinyon, and juniper woodlands.
Flower Color: Pink, White
Flowering Season: Spring
Height: Up to 10 inches (25 cm) tall, but usually much less
Description: The flower stalks emerge before the leafy shoots in the spring. The cuplike cyathia (false flowers) each contain both male flowers with yellow anthers and a central female flower. The cyathia are in clusters above petal-like, white or pink, spreading, linear-lanceolate bracts (floral leaves) of varying sizes at the tips of fleshy, erect, leafless, reddish green to reddish brown flower stalks. The female flowers are followed by larger, plump, hairless, 3-lobed, drooping, green, reddish, or dull purple seed capsules. The leaves are green, hairy or not, alternate, linear to linear-lanceolate in shape, and sessile or with short petioles. The multiple stems are herbaceous (die back at the end of the growing season), sparsely branched, sometimes hairy, and upright to decumbent. The roots are long, thick, and tuberous.
Classification
Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass: Rosidae
Order: Euphorbiales
Family: Euphorbiaceae – Spurge family
Genus: Euphorbia L. – spurge
Species: Euphorbia radians Benth. – sun spurge
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