SPECIES DESCRIPTION
EUPHORBIA VALERIANIFOLIA
Family and Genus:- See- EUPHORBIACEAE/Subgen. ESULA/Sect.
Common Names:- None
Homotypic Synonyms:- Euphorbia cybirensis var. longifolia, Euphorbia
cybirensis var. valerianifolia.
Meaning:- Euphorbia (L) For Euphorbus, physician to the King of Mauritania.
Valerianifolia (L) With valerian type foliage.
General description:- Glabrous or glabrescent annual.
Stem:-
1) 15-40 cm tall, simple or slightly branched from the base. becoming leafless in
the lower third or half.
Leaves:-
1) Middle and upper cauline, narrowly elliptical to oblanceolate, acute, serrulate,
thin.
3) Raylet-leaves, broadly ovate, mucronate.
Flowers:-
1) Rays, (3-)5.
2) Glands, transversely elliptical, not horned.
Fruit:-
1) Capsule, 3-3.5 mm, rounded, sometimes tardily dehiscent, sparsely covered with
cylindrical processes ending in a hair.
2) Seeds, 2.3-2.8 mm, obovoid, smooth and glossy, dark brown. Caruncle
sublateral, deciduous.
Habitat:- Coastal habitats, fallow fields, olive groves and roadsides, 0-400 m.
Distribution:- S Peloponnisos and on the Ionian Islands. - From Greece through
W & S Anatolia to Cyprus, W Syria and Palestine. Very rare on Crete currently
only know from only one location in the central north coastal area.
Flowering time:- April-May.
Photos by:- A. N. Other
