Chamaesyce polycarpa – Smallseed Sandmat

Chamaesyce polycarpa - Smallseed Sandmat

Chamaesyce polycarpa - Smallseed Sandmat

Plant Name

Scientific Name: Chamaesyce polycarpa

Synonym: Euphorbia polycarpa

Common Name: Smallseed Sandmat

Plant Characteristics

Duration: Annual, Perennial

Growth Habit: Herb/Forb

Arizona Native Status: Native

Habitat: Desert

Flower Color: White, Light red

Flowering Season: Spring

Height: To only 4 inches (10 cm) tall

Description: The small flowers have 4, petal-like, often scalloped appendages, each with a red to black, pad-shaped gland at their base. Although individually small, the flowers are quite numerous. The leaves are green, fleshy, and oval-shaped with with acute to obtuse tips. The stems are reddish. The plants are prostrate to ascending and glabrous to hairy.

The similar Whitemargin Sandmat (Chamaesyce albomarginata) has whitish leaf margins and both it and Matted Sandmat (C. serpens) are more prostrate and have white stipules at the leaf bases.

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 polycarpa (Benth.) Millsp. ex Parish – smallseed sandmat

More About This Plant

Arizona County Distribution Map