EUPHORBIA OBLONGATA

Family and Genus:- See- EUPHORBIACEAE/Subgen. ESULA/Sect. HELIOSCOPIA

Common Names:- None

Homotypic Synonyms:- Tithymalus oblongatus.

Meaning:- Euphorbia (L) For Euphorbus, physician to the King of Mauritania.

Oblongata (L) Elliptic with blunt ends, oblong.

General description:- Stout, caespitose, densely pubescent perennial.

Stems:-

1) Up to 80 cm. Robust, often with axillary rays below the terminal umbel.

Leaves:-

1) Narrowly obovate, obtuse, margins serrulate.

2) Ray-leaves, ovate, narrowed, or rounded at the base.

Flowers:-

1) Rays, 5, about equalling or somewhat exceeding the ray-leaves.

2) Glands, often only 2-3.

Fruit:-

1) Capsule, 3·8-4·3 mm, sparsely covered with short tubercles, glabrous.

2) Seeds, 2-5 mm, brown.

Key features:-

1) Plant, distinctly pubescent.

2) Capsule, with elongated or hemispherical tubercles.

3) Seeds, smooth or nearly so.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Deciduous and evergreen scrub, olive groves, embankments of forest

roads in somewhat damp places on various substrates. 50-1200(1700) m.

Distribution:- S Peloponnisos and scattered on mainland Greece. - S & C Balkan

Peninsula, NW Turkey. Rare on Crete currently known from only one location in the

central areas and three in the west.

Flowering time:- Apr to mid-July.

Photos by:- Kind permission of Saxifraga - Free Nature Images and Manolis

Petakakis.