Euphorbia gregaria
| Family: | Euphorbiaceae |
| Full name: | Euphorbia gregaria Marloth |
| Location: | Next to B4 between Aus and Keetmanshoop (2617DC) |
| ID status: | Fairly certain |
| Afrikaans common name(s): | Melkbos, Aggenysmelkbos, Aggenysbos |
| English common name(s): | Karas euphorbia, Gregarious euphorbia |
| Synonym(s): | - |
| Status: | Near-endemic |
| Description: | Multistemmed, spineless, succulent shrub, branching to form dense clumps, up to 2 x 2 in, occasionally larger. Flowering branches grey- to blueish-green, up to 8 mm in diameter, often scurfy. Leaves tiny, scale-like, red-brown. Inflorescence almost sessile, terminal; cyathia many, clustered in male, fewer in female. Glands maroon. Male and female flowers on separate plants. Flowering late winter to early summer. Capsules on sturdy down-curved stalks, up to 22 mm in diameter when mature, indistinctly 3- to 5-angled, densely covered in minute, pale-brown hairs. This species is characteristic of the summer rainfall areas in south-central and south-eastern Namibia and the Northern Cape Province of South Africa, and is not found in the true winter rainfall area, but rather just as far west as the transition zone between the two rainfall regimes. The name denotes its tendency to occur gregariously, often dominating large areas of the countryside. Although this species is superficially similar to E. gummifera, their distributions differ. The latter also has more branched, darker green stems and smaller capsules that are held erect on very short stalks. (from Wildflowers of the southern Namib by Coleen Mannheimer) |
| 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 Feb 2018 |
| Camera make: | Canon |
| Camera model: | EOS 7D |
| Lens aperture: | f/9.0 |
| Shutter speed: | 1/5000 s |
| ISO speed: | 1000 |
| Content last updated: | 18 Apr 2024 |
