#spurge

[girlfriendline]

when your alternate finally gets his captain back 🥹.

[jillraggett]

Plant of the Day

Tuesday 30 April 2024

In this front garden the variegated foliage and flowers of Euphorbia characias 'Silver Swan' (variegated spurge) were creating a display. This shrubby, evergreen perennial plant, has maroon-flushed dark stems that are clothed in grey-green leaves.

Jill Raggett

[wiley-treehouse-gardens]

Spurge. Such a distinctive smell.

[flowerishness]

Euphorbia characias (var. wulfenii) (Mediterranean spurge)

Green flowers

Flowering plants evolved about 140 million years ago but for the first forty million, they weren’t particularly colorful. Their basic contract with insects was the same, you help us with seed production and we’ll give you food (pollen and nectar) in return. But then the bees evolved and, all of sudden, flowering plants became a lot more beautiful. This is because bees have much better color vision than most insects. Bees are sometimes described as wasps that became strictly vegetarian.

Maybe, the Mediterranean spurge didn’t get the memo - it has green flowers! All true petals developed from conventional leaves anyway but this spurge seems to have got stuck, half way through the process. What appear to be green, cuplike petals are just highly specialized leaves (bracts) but bees are still attracted to it’s flowers. In addition to almost full-color vision, bees are very good with edges, and they can see this flower’s shape just fine.

[blogbirdfeather]

Mediterranean Spurge - Trovisco-macho (Euphorbia characias)

Sintra/Portugal (11/01/2024)

[Nikon P900; 50mm with flash; 1/30s; F6,3; 140 ISO]

[pharaohgargamel]

Доброе утро всем!

Счастливого и солнечного мирного дня!✨😊😺

-----------------

Good morning everybody!

Have a happy and sunny peaceful day!✨😊😺

[blackswallowtailbutterfly]

Succulents Part 8--Portulaca, Euphorbia, and Spergularia

Succulents are a wide variety of plants, spanning multiple orders. Some have succulent leaves while others have succulent stems. Cactuses are succulents, but not all succulents are cactuses. Defining what exactly makes a succulent is a little tricky. For example, cabbage leaves are considered by some to be succulent, but tulip and onion leaves apparently aren't.

All photos mine. Unedited except for the fourth one down on the left, which was taken in RAW format and edited from there to bring out the colour while maintaining the contrast of light and shadow.

There are Portulaca cultivars that are popular in gardens as annuals. But the weed known as purslane (second photo down on the right) is a Portulaca species with a nearly global native range. It's edible (has a mild salty taste), makes a nice ground cover in my opinion, and is unfairly maligned.

But don't mistake it for Euphorbia (spurge)! Because that is poisonous. Some cultivars look rather nice in the garden, though. One tell is that Euphorbia species will leek a milky sap if you cut it whereas purslane will not.

Spergularia (sea spurrey, sand spurrey, etc.) have very tiny pink flowers that you might notice if you look down on the grass from time to time if your city doesn't use pesticides. They are edible but I haven't tried them.

[falseandrealultravival]

Today's Haiku with Picture 570

Geometry

I wonder if you master it

Spurge

幾何学を

極めたるかな

トウダイグサ

(2023.04.18)

[faguscarolinensis]

Euphorbia lactea 'White Ghost' / 'White Ghost' Milk Tree at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens at Duke University in Durham, NC

[dansnaturepictures]

06/03/2024-Silver-sided Sector spider, post sunset sky, blossom and Collared Dove today, Great Crested Grebe and Canada Geese at Lakeside Country Park, Mediterranean Gulls at Hayling Island and sky at Testwood Lakes in recent days and phone photos of spurge at Winchester Cathedral and beautiful frosted red deadnettle this morning. Peregrine, Sparrowhawk, Wren, Great Tit and hyacinth were great to see in Winchester too with Cetti's Warbler heard by the River Itchen.

[crudlynaturephotos]

[girlfriendline]

cherish your goalie 🤗

wild @ oilers || 21.11.24

[jillraggett]

Plant of the Day

Friday 2 August 2024

This Euphorbia sp. (spurge) was thriving in a shady location and lighting up the area with clusters of bright yellow bracts. This could be Euphorbia schillingii which is a robust herbaceous perennial having deep green leaves with a conspicuous white strip for the mid-rib.

Jill Raggett

[wiley-treehouse-gardens]

The spurge emerges

[drhoz]

#1958 - Euphorbia glauca - Shore Spurge

It was growing right next to the Mirror Bush. I’m glad @purrdence​ spotted it because if she’d left it a few more years it might be very difficult to find. New Zealand’s only native Euphorbia, which is surprising since the genus has a worldwide distribution and a huge number of species - over 2000.

AKA sea spurge, waiu-atua, waiū-o-Kahukura, and sand milkweed.  Named for thin powdery bloom on the leaves, and Euphorbus, a Greek physician who served King Juba of Numidia in 12BC. Juba suppsedly named a cactus to honour of Euphorbus (rather unlikely to be a cactus in that part of the world - most likely one of the spiny, cactus-like Spurges) and later Linnaeus named the entire genus after the physician.

A perennial herb with multiple erect stems up to 1m tall, and underground rhizomes. Each flower, produced from October to February, is surrounded by a deep red cup-like structure with purple glands. Fruit, as here, occur from December to May. As with other Euphorbia, the sap a corrosive milky juice. 

Endemic to New Zealand and the Chatham Island, growing on coastal cliffs, banks and talus slopes, sand dunes and rocky lakeshore scarps.

Cattle, sheep, pigs and possums are threats throughout the species range, mainly through browsing and trampling. Competition from taller weedy plants is significant. Coastal development such as road widening, and erosion, are further threats to most populations. Some populations on the West Coast of the South Island appear to have succumbed to a fungal disease.

[blogbirdfeather]

Mediterranean Spurge - Trovisco-macho (Euphorbia characias)

Sintra/Portugal (23/11/2023)

[Nikon D850; AF 105mm Micro-Nikkor F2,8 with Circular Flash Nissin  MF 18; 1/250s; F16; 400 ISO]