Tiny Tuesday : : Euphorbia

I am fascinated by the diversity of Euphorbia. The  growth forms and adaptations to a range of habitats extend rom the Crown of Thorns found in Africa and Madagascar to cactus-like forms in North and South America They are drought and heat tolerant. Some are used in landscaping because of their diversity, ranging from plants laying on the ground to tall trees. The genus has over 2,000 members, including the perennial Christmas favorite, the poinsettia.

All euphorbias share the feature of having a poisonous, milky white latex-like sap. We learned about this when Dana's dog, Rudy, had to be rushed to the emergency vet after he ingested sap while digging for rodents in our garden as we sat enjoying a glass of wine under the arbor. We spent a whole day pulling them out, but sprouts still tend to pop up almost anywhere in the garden even two and a half years later. 

The euphorbia in my blip grow like weeds all over Northern California. We had them in Berkeley lining the trails in the hills where used to run, and I found these along a shady Spring Lake trail this morning. There is a healthy stand of them on Los Alamos road.Their repetitive flower forms fascinate me...a bit like those ever repeating mirror images one sees occasionally, each repetition being a smaller image of the one behind it.

I thought I must have posted numerous pictures of different versions of euphorbia, but discovered, looking through my blips, that I have only done one. Since I seem to have gravitated toward pictures of the natural world, I'll have to try to remedy that….

If you're interested in reading about this interesting plant here is one of many references.