Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
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)
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