WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

With spreading leaves around a terminal dense cluster of tiny, inconspicuous flowers and often red-splotched leaves, this weedy spurge resembles a miniature Poinsettia. Branching stems, 4–16-inches tall, have stiff hairs. Note the opposite leaves and hairless seed capsules. The green leaves often turn whitish around the flower cluster. All Euphorbias contain a toxic, milky latex sap that can cause dermatitis.

FLOWERS: July–September. Flowers highly modified into a tiny, cup-like structure with a single, round, cupped, greenish-yellow gland (use lens). Other species may have tiny white, petal-like appendages. A 3-sided capsule without hair develops on a short, drooping stem from each female flower.

LEAVES: Opposite. Leaf stems (petioles) often as long as leaves at midstem. Blades variable, linear to elliptic, 3/4–2 3/4-inches long (2–7 cm), tapering to a point, hairy undersides, margins variably toothed.

HABITAT: Dry sandy, gravelly soils, open areas, roadsides, disturbed areas; desert grasslands and scrub, prairies, pinyon-juniper woodlands.

ELEVATION: 3,600–7,500 feet.

RANGE: Widespread North, South America.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Most NM plants are considered E. davidii, though once lumped with and nearly indistinguishable in the field from E. dentata. The look-alike species Hairy-fruit Spurge, E. cuphosperma, has hairy seed capsules.

NM COUNTIES: Nearly statewide in mid-elevation, dry habitats: Bernalillo, Chaves, Colfax, Curry, Dona Ana, Eddy, Grant, Guadalupe, Harding, Hidalgo, Lea, Lincoln, Los Alamos, Luna, Mora, Otero, Quay, Rio Arriba, Roosevelt, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Union.