Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

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Euphorbia hirta

Common name

Asthma Plant

Family

Euphorbiaceae

Where found

Forest, woodland, grassy areas, and disturbed sites. North of Picton.

Notes

Introduced annual herb to 0.4 m high or sprawling. Stems produce a milky exudate when cut or broken. Stems with sparse to dense, short curled appressed hairs and long, spreading yellowish hairs. Leaves opposite each other, about 2.5-5 cm long, 11-26 mm wide, hairy with short appressed hairs, becoming hairless on the upper surface, margins toothed, tips blunt to pointed. Male and female flowers on the same plant. Flowers tiny, green, with 0 petals, in small dense head-like clusters that look like a single flower, each cluster with 1-7 male flowers and 1 female flower, each flower less than 1 mm long and wide, surrounded by 4 glands. Glands reddish. Small pink or white appendages at the base of the seed cases, or sometimes appendages absent. Flowering: mainly spring or summer. Seed cases 1.5 mm in diameter.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Euphorbia~hirta (accessed 16 January, 2021)