Plant Name
Scientific Name: Chamaesyce hyssopifolia
Synonyms: Chamaesyce brasiliensis, Euphorbia hyssopifolia, E. brasiliensis
Common Names: Hyssopleaf Sandmat, Hyssop Spurge
Plant Characteristics
Duration: Annual, Perennial
Growth Habit: Herb/Forb
Arizona Native Status: Native
Habitat: Desert. This weed is most common in sandy desert washes and in agricultural areas.
Flower Color: Inconspicuous (white new flowers, pink old flowers)
Flowering Season: Summer
Height: From 4 inches (10 cm) to 4 feet (1.2 m) tall
Description: The flowers are tiny and have a dangling, 3-angled, green ovary and 4 petal-like lobes. The flower lobes open white and age to reddish pink color. The leaves have finely toothed margins and short petioles and are green, opposite, and elliptical in shape. There are 2, pale, fringed stipules at the base of the hairless leaf stalks.
The similar Graceful Sandmat (Chamaesyce hypericifolia) has longer, magenta leaf stipules.
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: Chamaesyce Gray – sandmat
Species: Chamaesyce hyssopifolia (L.) Small – hyssopleaf sandmat
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