Species

Euphorbia lathyrus

Etymology

Euphorbia: after Euphorbus, a Greek physician who served King Juba of Numidia in 12BC. Juba named a cactus to honour Euphorbus and later Linnaeus named the entire genus after the physician.

Common Name(s)

caper spurge

Authority

Euphorbia lathyrus L.

Family

Euphorbiaceae

Flora Category

Vascular - Exotic

NVS Species Code

EUPLAT

The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.

Structural Class

Dicotyledonous Herbs other than Composites

Synonyms

Euphorbia lathyris L.

Features

A hairless, bluish-green biennial plant growing to a height of 1 - 1.5 metres.

Flowering

Summer months

Flower Colours

Green,Yellow

Year Naturalised

1870

Origin

E. and C. Mediterranean but widely naturalised in Western Europe.

Poisonous plant:

All species of Euphorbia are poisonous especially this which can cause blindness in people removing it by hand from the garden and then rubbing their eyes.

This page last updated on 8 Aug 2013