Tiny Tuesday : : Euphorbia

There are about a million different kinds of euphorbia including Poinsettia, Crown of thorns and this one, Ephorbia myrsinites which survives in our garden. It is quite pretty with long stems that have spirally arranged triangular leaves on them. I believe euphorbia is one of those prehistoric plants that survives today because of its many species and its extreme adaptability. Imagine a euphorbia obesa, a euphorbia horrida, or a euphorbia candelabrum. Or if you're really interested, check them out here. 

Several years ago we were sitting in our arbor with Dana and Jim enjoying a glass of wine and watching the sunset while Dana's dog Rudy, a wire-haired dachshund mix, did what Rudy does best...dug furiously pursuing rodents. Eventually we began to realize that he was having a problem...there were euphorbia, a different species, perhaps polychroma, growing everywhere in the  garden then, and Rudy had used his teeth, as ratters do, to help dig his hole. Euphorbia  has a milky white sap (latex) which is poisonous if ingested, and is not water soluble, which is why it is used to make gloves.


a trip to the doggie emergency room ensued and all ended well...apparently with lashings of milk as one antidote. It was all the incentive we needed to pull out every last euphorbia plant on our large hill. Many of them were growing at the base of the  spiky agaves back there and it was no easy task to remove them, but remove them we did...making sure we wore gloves because the latex also causes a rash. We were pulling up euphorbia shoots for years as they are excellent self seeders....

This particular variety survives because it is smaller, better behaved and doesn't require pruning or deadheading and I love its fractal formation. I liked the raindrops caught in the (waterproof) leaves.