Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Euphorbia psammogeton

Common name

Sand spurge

Family

Euphorbiaceae

Where found

Fore-dunes, pebbly strandlines and exposed headlands. Coastal north from south of Jervis Bay.

Notes

Perennial herb, prostrate, forming mats to 1 m in diameter, often growing from a woody rootstock. Stems hairless. Leaves 1–3 cm long, 5–15 mm wide, hairless. Male and female flowers on the same plant. Flowers tiny, with 0 petals, in small heads that look like a single flower, each head with up to five sprays of minute male flowers surrounding 1 female flower. Glandular appendages surrounding the flowers entire, petal-like, white. Flower heads in small clusters. Flowering: spring-summer. Seed cases 2.5 mm in diameter.

Was Chamaesyce psammogeton.

Endangered NSW. Provisions of the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 No 63 relating to the protection of protected plants generally also apply to plants that are a threatened species.

NSW Threatened Species profile with photos (as Chamaesyce psammogeton):  http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/threatenedSpeciesApp/profile.aspx?id=10160  (accessed 18 January, 2021)

PlantNET description with line drawing:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Euphorbia~psammogeton  (accessed 18 January, 2021)