Common Name: SPURGE FAMILY Habit: Annual to shrub, tree [vine, cactus-like succulent]; monoecious or dioecious; sap clear or milky. Stem: generally branched [fleshy or spiny]. Leaf: generally simple, alternate to whorled, generally stipuled, sessile or petioled; blade entire, toothed, or lobed. Inflorescence: flowers solitary or in terminal or axillary cymes, racemes, spikes, or panicles, or (in Euphorbia) 1° inflorescence a compact, flower-like cyathium with much-reduced flowers enclosed within an involucre of fused bracts, cyathia terminal or axillary, 1 or in cyme-like arrays. Flower: unisexual, +- radial; sepals 0 or 2--6, free or fused; petals generally 0(5); stamens 1--many, free or filaments fused; ovary superior, chambers (1)3(4), styles free or fused, undivided, forked, or variously lobed. Fruit: generally capsule that splits into mericarps that then dehisce, releasing seeds. Seed: 1 per chamber; knob-like appendage sometimes present at attachment scar. Genera In Family: 217 genera, 6000+ species: +- worldwide especially tropics; some cultivated (Aleurites, tung oil; Euphorbia species; Hevea, rubber; Ricinus). Toxicity: Many species +- highly TOXIC, due primarily to latex, especially if eaten or in contact with skin, eyes. Note:Eremocarpus moved to Croton, Tetracoccus moved to Picrodendraceae for TJM2; Chamaesyce moved to Euphorbia here (key to genera revised by Thomas J. Rosatti). eFlora Treatment Author: Mark H. Mayfield & Grady L. Webster, except as noted Scientific Editor: Bruce G. Baldwin.
Habit: Annual, perennial herb, < 2 m; sap clear or milky; monoecious. Stem: erect. Leaf: alternate, entire or toothed; stipules minute, petioled; blade base generally with 2 glands. Inflorescence: spike, axillary or terminal; bracts glandular. Staminate Flower: calyx 2-lobed; stamens 2; nectary disk 0. Pistillate Flower: sepals 3, overlapping in bud, reduced, or 0; ovary 3-chambered, styles free, fused proximally, lobes 0. Fruit: generally 3-lobed, separating into 3 1-seeded segments; central axis persistent. Seed: pointed; scar not appendaged. Etymology: (Benjamin Stillingfleet, British botanist, 1702--1771) eFlora Treatment Author: Mark H. Mayfield & Grady L. Webster Reference: Johnston & Warnock 1963 SW Naturalist 8:100--106
Stillingia spinulosa Torr.
NATIVE Habit: Annual or perennial herb < 10 dm. Leaf: blade generally 2--4 cm, 5--12 mm wide, elliptic to ovate, sharply toothed. Inflorescence: 1--2 cm, axillary; glands of pistillate bracts stalked, +- 2 mm. Pistillate Flower: 1--2 per inflorescence, +- open; styles 3--3.5 mm. Fruit: 4--5 mm. Seed: 3--3.5 mm, striate, minutely roughened. Ecology: Sandy soils, dunes, creosote-bush scrub; Elevation: < 900 m. Bioregional Distribution: D; Distribution Outside California: southern Nevada, Arizona. Flowering Time: Mar--May Jepson eFlora Author: Mark H. Mayfield & Grady L. Webster Reference: Johnston & Warnock 1963 SW Naturalist 8:100--106 Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange) Previous taxon: Stillingia paucidentata Next taxon: Tragia
Botanical illustration including Stillingia spinulosa
Citation for this treatment: Mark H. Mayfield & Grady L. Webster 2012, Stillingia spinulosa, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=45631, accessed on April 19, 2024.
Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2024, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on April 19, 2024.
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(Note: any qualifiers in the taxon distribution description, such as 'northern', 'southern', 'adjacent' etc., are not reflected in the map above, and in some cases indication of a taxon in a subdivision is based on a single collection or author-verified occurence).
Data provided by the participants of the
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CCH collections by month
Duplicates counted once; synonyms included.
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Blue line denotes eFlora flowering time (fruiting time in some monocot genera).
