Annuals Dictionary: Euphorbia
Spurge family
Euphorbiaceae
You-for’bi-a. Probably over 1600 species of great variety, ranging from weeds and tropical, cactuslike succulents to popular garden annuals. The species below are grown for their foliage.
Description
Leaves alternate, opposite, or whorled, sometimes toothed. Flowers have no petals or sepals but often have showy, highly colored bracts.
How to Grow
Plants need soil temperatures of 70-75° F (21-24° C) to germinate. Sow seeds at the frost-free date; thin to 2 ft. (60 cm) apart. Where summers are short, start seeds indoors 6 weeks before last frost. The species below prefer warm weather.
Euphorbia cyathophora
Annual Poinsettia ; Mexican Fire Plant ; Painted Leaf . To 3 ft. (90 cm) high. Leaves linear, egg-shaped, inverted egg-shaped, or fiddle-shaped. Upper leaves and bracts becoming red, or with a patch of red at the base. Flowers small and yellow-green. Mexico, widespread in the e. U.S. Usually grown under misapplied name E. heterophylla , a nearly identical species with bracts green or purple-spotted, never red. Half-hardy annual.
Euphorbia Lathyris
Caper Spurge ; Mole Plant . Single erect stem to 3 ft. (90 cm) high. Leaves in 4 ranks, linear-oblong to oblong lance-shaped, 2-6 in. (5-15 cm) long. Flowers small, yellow-green, in loose, leafy-bracted clusters at top of stem. Fruit with 4 glands, ? in. (8 mm) wide. Europe. Reputed to repel moles. Biennial grown as a hardy annual.
Euphorbia marginata
Snow-on-the-Mountain ; Ghostweed . To 3 ft. (90 cm) high. Lower leaves green, the upper white-margined. Bracts of the flower cluster white and very showy. Flowers small and greenish white. S. Dak. to Tex. Sometimes sold as E. variegata . Its milky juice can be a skin irritant. Half-hardy annual.