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Plant Families: Spurge

© Gregg Pasterick

The Spurge Family (Euphorbiaceae) is everything the Heath Family isn't, which is polite way to say it falls at the other end of the spectrum in most people's eyes. They aren't big, showy, ornamental type plants, which look as if a landscaper has been about. Some are invasive and unwanted. Unless you are a wildflower lover, they are often easy to overlook. Depending on your taste, they are rarely the bell of the ball in our northerly climes.

On the other hand, if you are a wildflower lover, you are familiar with some of these plants, and one is very well known, but is not a species you'll find growing in the wild unless you are in a hot climate.

Members of the Spurge Family are herby things with milky sap; the sap irritates the membranes of the eyes and mouth, and most of the family is poisonous. In warmer climates there are some shrubs and trees in the family.

Their flowers are unisexual and radially symmetrical. The calyx and corolla each have five separate parts. In female flowers these parts are attached at the base of the ovary. The corolla is absent in some flowers, while both calyx and corolla are absent in others. Flowers have one to many stamens.

There are about 7,500 species in the Spurge Family, spread among about 300 genera. Most of the family prefers warm or tropical regions, where many of them are grown as ornamentals (just as members of the Heath Family are here.) The most popular of these is the Christmas Poinsettia (Poinsettia pulcherrima).

Rubber, tapioca, castor oil, and tung oil come from this family.

I've encountered members of the Spurge Family in my travels. Back in the woods of Ohio, summer-to-fall blooming Flowering Spurge (Euphorbia corollata) is common. Its small white flowers - up to 3/8" wide - grow in umbels. The actual, true flowers are very, very small, and grow in the middle of five round petal-like bracts.

I found Rattlesnake Weed (Chamaesyce albomarginata) in the deserts of California. It grows in thin, dense mats of small, round leaves, slender stems, and a multitude of small, white and maroon flowers. The small flowers are no more than 1/8" wide, and like those of Flowering Spurge, the actual, true flowers are small, simple things at the center of the 4 or 5 bracts, which are the white with maroon bits. Male flowers have a single stamen; female flowers have just an ovary. Rattlesnake Weed is so-named because it was once thought useful in treating snakebites.