EUPHORBIA SULTAN-HASSEI
Family and Genus:- See- EUPHORBIACEAE
Common Names:- None
Homotypic Synonyms:- None
Meaning:- Euphorbia (L) For Euphorbus, physician to the King of Mauritania.
Sultan-hassei In honour of Professor Hans Runemark, eminent
investigator of the flora of the Aegean islands.
General description:- Subglabrous, non-spiny, spherical shrub up to 1.5 m diam.,
regularly and rather laxly branched in a pseudo-dichotomous manner.
Branches:-
1) (Below second dichotomy from the top) 3-4 mm diam., rough from persistent leaf
scars; cortex sulcate, light reddish-brown.
2) Twigs, leafy on the ultimate 5-15 cm.
Leaves:-
1) Cauline, spirally arranged, densely set, subsessile, 30-50 x 5-9 mm,
oblanceolate to narrowly elliptical, entire, acute to apiculate. light green above,
glaucous, and papillose, beneath; midrib prominent beneath, lateral veins
obscure.
2) Upper, sometimes with a small tuft of hairs at the base.
3) Ray-leaves, resembling the cauline leaves, equalling or up to twice as long as
the rays, green.
4) Raylet-leaves, 10-18 x 5-8 mm, narrowly obovate, green at anthesis, deciduous
in fruit.
Flowers:-
1) Rays, 3-5, 8-14 mm long; axillary rays lacking. Each ray usually with a single
trichotomy.
2) Raylets, c. 5 mm long.
3) Glands of cyathia 4, reniform, c. 1 .2 mm wide, yellowish.
4) Styles, branched almost halfway.
5) Stigma, minute, capitate.
Fruit:-
1) Capsule, 3.8-4.8 x 4.4-5.8 mm, densely covered with conical, laterally somewhat
compressed tubercles, dehiscing, when still green.
2) Seeds, 2.7-3.2 x 2.0-2.3 mm, medium brown, rugose-verrucose, from groups of
raised cells ("leprose'); caruncle hemispherical, c. 1 mm wide,whitish.
Habitat:- Crevices and ledges of limestone cliffs in gorges. 100-600 m.
Distribution:- Endemic to the Eparhia Sfakia area in south-western Crete.
Flowering time:- Apr-May
Photo by:- Fotis Samaritakis
Status:-
Conservation status (for threatened species): Vulnerable (V) according to IUCN
1997
SPECIES DESCRIPTION
