Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

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Euphorbia prostrata

Common name

Red Caustic Weed

Family

Euphorbiaceae

Where found

Cracks of paths and in gardens. Mainly Sydney area and north. Occasionally elsewhere.

Notes

Introduced annual herb, prostrate. Stems to about 20 cm long, forming dense mats, sparsely hairy. Leaves opposite each other, 0.3–0.8 cm long, 1–5 mm wide, one side of the base longer than the other, margins finely toothed towards the leaf tips. Male and female flowers on the same plant. Flowers tiny, with 0 petals, in small clusters that look like a single flower, each cluster with several male flowers surrounding 1 female flower. Red glands with inconspicuous white to pink, narrow appendages, about 0.2 mm wide, at the base of the flowers. Flowering: mainly summer. Seed cases about 1.2 mm in diameter.

Was Chamaesyce prostrata.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Euphorbia~prostrata  (accessed 22 January, 2021)