Family: Euphorbiaceae
Euphorbia segetalis
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.
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Image source: fig 402g in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).
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Published illustration:
Fiori & Paoletti (1901) Iconographiae florae Italicae, fig. 2601; Hegi (1924) Illustrierte Flora von Mittel-Europa 5, 1:fig. 1794.
Distribution:
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S.Aust.: SL. W.Aust. Native to the Mediterranean region, naturalised as a garden weed.
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Conservation status:
naturalised
Flowering time: apparently throughout the year.
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SA Distribution Map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of South Australia
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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
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