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Electronic Flora of South Australia species Fact Sheet

Family: Euphorbiaceae
Euphorbia wheeleri

Citation: Baillon, Adansonia 6:286 (1866).

Synonymy: Chamaesyce wheeleri (Baillon) Hassall, Aust. J. Bot. 24:640 (1976). , Chamaesyce mitchelliana, Chamaesyce myrtoides, Euphorbia mitchelliana, Euphorbia myrtoides

Common name: Wheelers spurge.

Description:
Erect-ascending apparently annual glabrous herb, stems arising from the tap root, many-branched from the base, often swollen at the nodes and appearing articulate, green to reddish-brown, to 30 cm long; leaves opposite, distinctly petiolate, the pairs rather distant, ovate-oblong, 3-10 sometimes to 15 mm long, 1-5 mm wide, entire or slightly serrulate, obtuse to truncate, green, drying reddish, asymmetrical at the base, distinct central nerve sometimes terminating in a small mucro; stipules triangular, to 0.8 mm long, entire or lobed to incised, pale-green.

Cyathia solitary and axillary or terminal and 1 or 2, on peduncles to 0.5 mm long; involucre turbinate, to 1 mm long, pale-green; glands reniform, c. 0.5 mm long, red, bordered by white or the appendage almost entirely red; styles filiform, divided nearly to the base, ascending.

capsule oblong, 3-lobed, 2-2.5 x 1.8-2 mm, glabrous, smooth, drooping when mature; seed quadrangular-oblong, 1.5-2 x 0.7-1 mm, more or less angular, deeply reticulate-foveate, white- to pink-brown, without a caruncle.

image of FSA2_Euphorbia_whe.jpg Euphorbia wheeleri twig, cyathium, fruit and seed.
Image source: fig 403c in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).

Distribution:  Not uncommon, on sand plains and more often on crest and upper slopes of sandhills in deep red sands.

S.Aust.: NW, LE, GT, FR.   W.Aust.; N.T.; Qld.

Conservation status: native

Flowering time: most of 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: Has some resemblance to E. drummondii which is a prostrate plant.

Author: Not yet available


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