Euphorbiaceae

Spurges

From Streeter et al., (2016, p. 52), 'Family key':

"The strange green or reddish-tinged 'flowers' of spurges appear to be borne in umbels. In fact, the 'flowers' are condensed inflorescences consisting of 4 fused bracts forming a corolla-like cup on the inside of which are several male flowers consisting of a single stamen, and a single female flower. The leaves are usually alternate and the stems contain a poisonous milky latex."

For the specimen(s) below, hover over image in gallery for description and select for a full screen preview.

ID: 053

Date: 13 Jun 2024

Locality: Totternhoe Nature Reserve, near Dunstable

Location (Lat/Long): 51.891, -0.574

Landscape/habitat: This site is a chalk grassland, managed by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire (no date). There were lots of mounds, presumably from yellow meadow ant hills.

Identification notes: This was the last family of plants I had to find a representative from, I used iNaturalist (iNaturalist, 2024) to search for spurges and found a number of results recording them recently in this location, so I made at trip to find them! I was very pleased to see them so clearly.

From the description (Streeter et al, 2016, p. 320), with my observations:

'Numerous erect flowering and non-flowering stems' (as shown in the photos, there are numerous stems, some are flowering and some are non-flowering)
Leaves are 'narrow, <=2mm wide, linear, numerous, those on non-flowering shoots crowded' (highlighted in photo in gallery how the non-flowering shoots are crowded with leaves)
The umbel bracts are 'different from the ones above, which become reddish' (highlighted in photo gallery)
Calcareous grassland is listed as a habitat
Flowering 'May-Aug', so this expected to see flowering at this time

Name: Cypress Spurge, Euphorbia cyparissias

Cypress spurge - umbel bracts look different

Cypress spurge - with non-flowering shoots crowded with leaves

Cypress spurge - my thumb shown for scale

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References

iNaturalist (2024) Observations. Available at: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations (Accessed: 12 June 2024).

Streeter, D., Hart-Davies, C., Hardcastle, A., Cole, F. and Harper, L. (2016) Collins wild flower guide. Revised and updated 2nd edition. edn. London: William Collins.

The Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire (no date) Totternhoe. Available at: https://www.wildlifebcn.org/totternhoe (Accessed: 13 June 2024).