In general, euphorbias need a sunny location and rich, well-drained soil. Light types, meanwhile, can tolerate some shade and do well as ground cover around shrubs and trees.
How to plant euphorbias
Dig a deep hole when planting euphorbias that have been cultivated in pots and fill it with compost or leaf mould. Euphorbia should be planted firmly, then it should be watered well and mulched to keep moisture in and weeds out.
Here, Monty Don proposes two exceptional euphorbia species and provides planting instructions. Additionally, he offers advice on how to grow euphorbias from cuttings.
How to care for euphorbias
As long as the growing environment is favorable, euphorbias don’t need feeding or special care. After the blooms have faded, blooming stems should be pruned. However, gloves must always be used when working with euphorbias because their milky sap is hazardous if consumed and irritates the skin and eyes.
How to propagate euphorbias
Euphorbias can be grown by taking springtime cuttings. Wear gloves to protect your hands from the sap.
By collecting cuttings of Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii in the spring, you can learn how simple and gratifying euphorbia propagation is. Monty Don offers advice on how to maintain the cuttings’ viability, plant them, and shield your hands from the irritating sap:
Is Euphorbia a perennial plant?
In the fall, cut the entire plant back to the ground. After flowering, perennial herbaceous euphorbia require deadheading. Before the first frost, cut the plant back to the ground so that it won’t come back the following year.
Which Euphorbia is best?
The 6 Best Spurge Varieties to Plant as Your Secret Weapon
- Characias E. Subsp.
- Myrsinites Euphorbia Above: On a bed of gravel, Euphorbia myrsinites creeps along.
- Eupatorium rigidum
- Martinii x Euphorbia
- Various Euphorbia Amygdaloides
- Portuguese Velvet Euphorbia characias
Where can one find euphorbia?
The diversity of the South African euphorbias’ appeal is one of their greatest charms. For every taste, they have something to offer. A collection may include a few well chosen species or a large number of them: There are many fascinating plant options in the euphorbia genus.
Description
The plants might be herbaceous, woody, succulent, shrublets, trees, or shrublets, but they are always distinguished by prominent milky latex. Succulent species typically have reduced or deciduous leaves. Stipules are frequently transformed into prickles and spines and are typically present.
Many species have inflorescence stalks called peduncles that continue to grow even after the cyathia and capsules have wilted. These persistent peduncles can become real spines in some species by becoming sharpened at the tip. A number of bracts surround each individual flower that is contained within a cyathium, the fundamental component of a euphorbial inflorescence, to create a distinctive floral envelope known as an involucre. The blooms are unisexual, with the pistillate flower on its own pedicel and the male flower reduced to a single stamen. Strangely, a cyathium only ever has one female flower, although there are always many male blooms. Capsules typically have three cells; after maturity, the cells split from a persisting axis, frequently ejecting the seeds violently.
Distribution description
With 2000 species, Euphorbia is one of the largest and most diverse genera of flowering plants in the world. With the exception of the polar areas, it is found practically everywhere. Euphorbia species can range from prostrate, flat weeds that are common in gardens worldwide to majestic trees that are typical of the dry regions of eastern and southern Africa, as well as perennial plants that are mostly from Europe, North America, and Asia. Most succulent species are found in Africa and Madagascar, where many of the thorny or spiney varieties resemble one another and are sometimes mistaken for cactus from North and South America. They are easily identified by the milky latex, which is frequently poisonous, that is produced when the plant is harmed.
Carter and Eggli (1997) list 850 succulent Euphorbia names, 723 of which are only found in Africa and Madagascar. The remaining 188 are found in South Africa, where they are common and grow in a variety of environments, including forests and deserts.
History
In honor of Euphorbus, who is believed to have employed plants like euphorbias for therapeutic purposes and who served as King Juba II of Mauritania’s physician in the first century, Linnaeus created the genus. Euphorbus was not as well-known as his brother Antonus Musa, a physician who was honored for his work by having a bronze statue erected. The only thing that makes Euphorbus memorable is his connection to a shrub from “far Africa.” Linnaeus was struck by the difference between reputation that is connected to a plant’s name and celebrity that is based on the apparent durability of bronze. In 1737, Linnaeus penned: “Ubi nam Musae statua? Perihelion, aha! (Where is the statue of Musa now? Euphorbii autem perdurat, perenat, nec unquam destrui protest) It has died or disappeared. However, Euphorbus’s is eternal, never-ending, and unassailable.
The Latin word exurgare, which means to cleanse out, and the French word espurge are the origins of the popular name spurge. Since the Middle Ages, the seed and latex have been used medicinally, probably with disastrous effects and not advised.
The 10 volumes of the Euphorbia Journal (Schwartz 1983–1996), the Illustrated Handbook of Succulent Plants published by the International Organization for Succulent Plant Study (Eggli 2001), the Euphorbia Study Group (England), the Cactus and Succulent Society (US), as well as the regional Succulent Society of South Africa, all draw significant attention to this subject. Although it is a little antiquated, the well-known, two-volume contribution of White, Dyer & Sloane’s Succulent Euphorbieae from 1941 is still accessible in specialized bookshops.
Use
Some species, such Euphorbia millii, the crown of thorns, and E. pulcherrima, the poinsettia, are commonly cultivated. Almeidina latex was utilized as a rubber substitute and E. tirucalli was produced as a crop, but this proved to be unstable. It is however remains a component of boat antifouling. The species and a few others have also had its hydrocarbons (fuel) removed, although it has been unprofitable thus far. Many species, including many of the prostrate ones commonly known as Chamaesyce, are purposefully grown as deadly weeds like E. esula. An edible Mexican shrub yields hard candelilla wax, a useful component of polishes and waxes.
Grow
If cared for in the garden, Euphorbia mauritanica, one of the species listed, is a beautiful garden plant. The remainder, along with a few other rare South African species like E. obesa, make lovely potted plants as long as they receive adequate light and not too much moisture. Two of South Africa’s largest succulent trees, Euphorbia ingens and E. cooperi, are plainly best suited for a large garden. These two species’ latex is very hazardous and can frequently result in severe pain, blindness if even the tiniest drop touches the eye, or excruciating throat inflammation. However, no species can be deemed risk-free, so care should always be used while trimming or potting plants of any Euphorbia species. Gloves and safety glasses should always be worn to avoid coming into contact with latex.
The majority of species are simple to grow from seed. Fresh seed is ideal, but many species only produce a few number of them, often parasitized or sterile.
Species
Multi-stemmed Euphorbia This exceedingly unique “manyheaded” Euphorbia was found in 1904 in the Laingsburg area by Hermann Wilhelm Rudolf Marloth. E. multiceps is distinct from other species of Euphorbia because of its tall, conical main stem, which can reach a height of 600 mm and a base diameter of 250 mm. Countless upward-declining, horizontally spreading branches up to 75 mm long cover the stem. The stem and branches develop thick, prickly spines or modified peduncles. At the ends of branches, inflorescences are solitary and have light green glands.
Eugenia eustachei Charles Eustace Pillans, a dedicated collector of Cape succulents and a Director in the Cape Government service at the time, made the discovery in 1910 close to Matjesfontein. A neat pincushion shape, measuring 150 mm high and 300 mm or more in diameter, is formed by a unisexual, spiky, dwarf shrub that is built up from many short, crowded branches. Up to 50 mm long, hard, ascending, single spines or modified peduncles are present. Deciduous leaves can grow up to 40 mm long and have very fine hairs. Near the apex, the cyathium is produced alone. The involucre, which has five pale-yellowish glands and is bigger in male plants, is glabrous or sparsely haired.
Mauritanian euphorbia Euphorbia mauritanica, thought to have come from “Mauritanica” in northwest Africa, was first cultivated in Europe around the beginning of the 18th century or earlier. a highly branched, rounded shrub that is often broader in diameter, 1 to 2 meters tall, and has rounded leaves. Branches are fleshy, cylindrical, and have alternate leaf scars as markings. Delicate, dense leaves cover the newest branches. On a short terminal branch, inflorescences are composed of a male cyathium surrounded by five to seven bisexual cyathia. 5-8 brilliant yellow glands. On a bent pedicel, the pistillate bloom protruded from the involucre. Among the most common species, but particularly prevalent in the Northern Cape.
pentops of euphorbia Hans Herre gathered plants in 1930, and White, Dyer, and Sloane described this species in 1941. The name, which translates as “Euphorbia with five eyes,” alludes to the involucral gland’s unusual appearance. Strong, partially underground main stem. several short branches with persistent peduncles. Solitary cyathia that emerge from tubercle axils. Green, cup-shaped involucre with 5 glands and laciniate lobes. With the exception of the shiny green patch at the gland’s base, the gland’s edges are separated into processes, each of which has an upper surface that is grayish or pinkish pubescent.
This species, Euphorbia caput-medusae, is appropriately named “Medusa’s head from the Cape” because it has several stems that resemble serpents and grow from a short caudex (thick, woody stem). About 1700 saw its introduction into the Amsterdam Botanic Garden. It can be found in deep sand or rocky outcrops on the coast close to Cape Town, where it is still common. Plant with a diameter that frequently exceeds 1 m, partially hidden in the ground, densely covered in branches, spineless but still bearing peduncular remnants. Involucre widely cup-shaped, 12 mm or more in diameter, with 5 glands and 5 lobes; glands palmately divided into 3 to 6 linear processes; undivided section green and pitted; processes white. Cyathia solitary, formed in clusters at the apex of branches, with peduncles up to 10 mm long. Pistillate bloom slightly protruded beyond the involucre’s lobes.
Eugenia louwii Dr. W.J. Louw discovered it close to Marken in the Limpopo Province, and Larry Leach named it in his honor in 1980. This species can be distinguished from other species that are similar by its 5-7-angular stem and its extra spine, which is almost always present.
The prickly, shrubby Euphorbia louwii grows to a height of 1 m, branches extensively at the base, and has few secondary branches above. Branches are subcylindric and greenish blue with 5-7 angles. Spine shields are irregular and can be up to 10 mm long. They have 5 thin, paired spines, with the basal one being a single, tiny spine. Three cyathia are grouped horizontally in an inflorescence, with extra ones frequently appearing in the axils of bracts that support lateral cyathia; the peduncle is short. Each bloom is generated at the apex of a developing axis. funnel-shaped involucre with five yellowish-green glands.
Waterberg euphorbia Allan Lever initially discovered this species in 1940, but Dyer didn’t describe it until 1951, when Dr. L.E. Codd and Mr. J. Ehrens had assembled thorough collections. a 1.5 m or occasionally higher prickly, succulent bush. Suppressed main stem with branches close to the ground. Branches are dark green or glaucous green, more or less upright, 20 to 200 mm long, 25 mm in diameter, and 4-6 angled. The angles are covered in paired spines on a continuous, horny gray edge that is 1.5–2.0 mm wide. 5 mm long pairs of spines with rudimentary or nonexistent prickles above. Cymes of 3-5 cyathia formed slightly above the pair of spines from the flowering eye; the central cyathium was male and was the first to form, with 2, 3, or 4 bisexual cyathia positioned at an angle to the main axis. Glabrous Cyathia with 5 contiguous, pale green or yellow glands. Reddish brown, subglobose capsules. Only the northwest foothills of the Waterberg Mountain Range are home to E. waterbergensis. Vulnerable, in terms of conservation. protected by law in Limpopo.
ramiglans euphorbia Harry Bolus made the initial discovery in 1883, but it wasn’t until recently that it was rediscovered near Port Nolloth and Alexander Bay. Strong main stem, up to 200 mm high and 500 mm in diameter, partially underground. many, 200 mm long branches with few persisting peduncles. Solitary cyathia that emerge from tubercle axils. Cup-shaped involucre; five green glands with a few whitish, delicately branched projections.
terrifying euphorbia From Jansenville in the Eastern Cape to Oudtshoorn in the Western Cape, numerous types of the beautiful but uncommon Euphorbia horrida are known. In nurseries, this form is typical to observe. The particular epithet, which refers to the intimidating rows of up to 40 mm long spines, implies bristling. Spiny succulent shrub that can grow up to 1.5 meters high in haphazard bunches. Branches are upright, cylindrical, 100 to 150 mm thick, and have noticeable, wing-like angles of 10 to 20. Up to 40 mm long, extremely hard spines or modified peduncles. Solitary, pedunculate Cyathia. Finely hairy involucre with 5 glands and 5 sizable lobes. green or purple glands.
When should euphorbia be planted?
Growing and Planting Euphorbia In a sunny spot with exceptionally well-drained soil, plant in the spring or the fall. Plant bushes in the spring and shield them from chilly winds until they are established. Even though most species prefer full sun, evergreens may tolerate a little light shade. The taller varieties make good border plants.
Are euphorbias contagious?
The ideal plant for growing beneath large trees is Euphorbia amygdaloides var. robbiae, one of the few species that grows in poor, dry soil in shadow. It grows through subterranean runners and finally forms a low carpet that smothers weeds. From spring to early summer, it produces erect spikes of lime green blooms in contrast to the dark glossy leaves. It serves as a good evergreen foil all year long for other shade-loving plants. It has received The Royal Horticultural Society’s esteemed Award of Garden Merit (AGM).
Grow Euphorbia amygdaloides var. robbiae in partially to completely shaded, well-drained soil. Trim back fading flower stems in the fall. Every spring, as part of routine border maintenance, remove undesirable seedlings.
Wear gloves whenever handling euphorbias. The creamy sap irritates the skin.