Citation: L., Sp. Pl. 458 (1753).

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Short stem carnation weed, cornfield-spurge.

Description:
Glabrous erect ascending annual, rarely perennating, to 35 cm tall, simple or branched with usually 4 or 5 axillary rays up to 5 times dichotomous, the umbel usually as long as or longer than the stem, green, maturing reddish; cauline leaves spreading, linear to linear-lanceolate, 15-40 (rarely to 60) x 1-3 mm, entire, somewhat glaucous, eventually caducous; ray-leaves elliptic-oblong, wider and shorter than the cauline; raylet-leaves ovate or deltate-rhombic, obtuse or mucronate, cuneate to subcordate, 2-10 x 3-20 mm, terminal ones replacing the bracts.

Cyathia solitary at the base of the forks axillary or up to 3 terminally; involucre campanulate, c. 1 mm long and wide, attenuated into a very short peduncle; glands lunate, to 1 mm long, yellow, emarginate or with usually 2 rarely 4 long horns; styles ascending, divided to the middle, filiform, capitate.

Capsule depressed-globose, 3-lobed, 2.5-3 x 3-3.5 mm, deeply grooved, granulate-wrinkled on the back; seed ovoid, c. 2 x 1.6 mm, ash-grey, dark-pitted all over; caruncle pyramidal, yellow terminally, often white basally.

	Euphorbia segetalis twig, cyathium, fruit and seed.
Image source: fig 402g in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).

Published illustration: Fiori & Paoletti (1901) Iconographiae florae Italicae, fig. 2601; Hegi (1924) Illustrierte Flora von Mittel-Europa 5, 1:fig. 1794.

Distribution:  S.Aust.: SL.   W.Aust.   Native to the Mediterranean region, naturalised as a garden weed. Conservation status: naturalised Flowering time: apparently throughout the year.

SA Distribution Map based on current data relating to specimens held in the State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: No text

Taxonomic notes: When cauline leaves are shed at maturity shows similarities with E. terracina in which the glands always have only 2 long horns, while E. segetalis has 2 or 4 or lacks them on some glands.

Author: Not yet available