Euphorbia serpens
| Family: | Euphorbiaceae |
| Full name: | Euphorbia serpens Humb., Bonpl. & Kunth |
| Location: | Kyffhäuser (2416AD + 2416CB) |
| ID status: | Fairly certain |
| Afrikaans common name(s): | - |
| English common name(s): | Matted sandmat |
| Synonym(s): | Chamaesyce serpens (Kunth) Small Euphorbia minutiflora N.E.Br. |
| Status: | Alien |
| Description: | Small, much-branched prostrate annual herb with hairless branches up to 20 cm long. Leaves opposite, broadly ovate to almost round, up to 4 mm long, cordate at the base; margin entire. Flowers terminal or on short axillary shoots, maroon-purple and white, sexes separate on the same plant. Fruit a 3-lobed capsule, c. 18 mm long, yellowish-green, exserted on a reflexed pedicel. (from Flora of Zimbabwe website) Habit and arrangement of inflorescence as in E. prostrata Ait.. Stems 3–7 in. long, branching, glabrous. Leaves opposite, shortly petiolate, 1.5–2.5 lin. long, 1–2.333 lin. broad, suborbicular, slightly notched at the obtusely rounded apex, unequally subcordate at the base, entire, glabrous on both sides. Stipules 2 at each node, each pair being united into a deltoid-ovate or deltoid-oblong body, irregularly cut or toothed at the top. Involucres shortly pedunculate, 0.4 lin. long, campanulate, with 4 glands and 5 lobes, glabrous; glands minute, transverse, with a small transverse petal-like white appendage, rather broader than the width of the gland. Capsule not quite 1 lin. in diam., rather sharply 3-angled, glabrous. Seeds 0.5 lin. long, 4-angled, with smooth (not wrinkled) sides, reddish, somewhat glaucous on the sides but not on the angles. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora of Tropical Africa) Much-branched prostrate annual herb, with branches to 10(20) cm long, completely glabrous. Leaves with a petiole 0.2–0.5 mm long; stipules united at the swollen nodes, 0.5 x 1 mm, triangular with toothed margins; lamina 1–3 mm long, subcircular, obliquely cordate at the base, margins entire. Cyathia terminal and pseudoaxillary on short leafy shoots, solitary on peduncles to 2 mm long, 0.7 x 0.7 mm with cup-shaped involucres; glands 4, minute, transversely elliptic, with small white shallowly lobed appendages; involucral lobes minute, fringed. Male flowers: bracteoles laciniate; stamens 0.7 mm long. Female flower: perianth evident as a 3-lobed rim below the shortly pedicellate ovary; styles 0.2 mm long, spreading, bifid almost to the base. Capsule exserted on a reflexed pedicel to 1.8 mm long, 1.5 x 1.8 mm, obtusely 3-lobed with truncate base, yellowish-green. Seeds 1 x 0.6 mm, oblong-conical, smooth, greyish-pink. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora Zambesiaca) Fused stipules. |
| Link(s) |
African Plant Database
JSTOR Plant Science Kew Herbarium Catalogue BGBM Berlin-Dahlem - Virtual Herbarium Züricher Herbarien iNaturalist (Namibia / Alex Dreyer) iNaturalist (Namibia) iNaturalist (southern Africa) Flora of Zimbabwe Fleurs de notre Terre - Galerie Namibie Tree Atlas of Namibia |
| Photographer: | AA Dreyer |
| Date of photograph: | 20 Dec 2006 |
| Camera make: | Canon |
| Camera model: | PowerShot A700 |
| Lens aperture: | f/4.0 |
| Shutter speed: | 1/800 s |
| ISO speed: | - |
| Content last updated: | 18 Apr 2024 |
