Euphorbia guerichiana
| Family: | Euphorbiaceae |
| Full name: | Euphorbia guerichiana Pax |
| Location: | Naukluft (2416AC) |
| ID status: | Fairly certain |
| Afrikaans common name(s): | Papierbasmelkbos |
| English common name(s): | Paper-bark euphorbia, Antes (Nama) |
| Synonym(s): | Euphorbia commiphoroides Dinter Euphorbia frutescens N.E.Br. |
| Status: | Native |
| Description: | Woody. A shrub about 6–7 ft. high, apparently woody, with slender straight erect or ascending branches, the younger 0.75–1.5 lin. thick, with slightly prominent scars at the nodes, usually nearly or quite leafless at the time of flowering; leaves alternate, very small, shortly petiolate, soon deciduous,1.5–3 lin. long, 0.666–1.25 lin. broad, oblong, obovate or lanceolate, obtuse or acute, rather thick in texture, minutely puberulous on both sides; flowering branchlets developed in the axils of the fallen leaves, 1–2.5 lin. long, minutely puberulous, bearing a few small leaves and bracts and a terminal involucre; bracts obovate, sessile, thinner than the leaves; involucre 2 lin. in diam., cup-shaped, glabrous, hermaphrodite or male with a rudimentary ovary, with 5 glands and 5 subquadrate slightly notched denticulate or subciliate lobes; glands 0.75–1 lin. in their greater diam., transversely elliptic-oblong, entire; perfect ovary partly (or shortly?) exserted, erect, glabrous, with a very small 3-lobed calyx at its base; lobes very short, emarginate; styles nearly 1 lin. long, united at the base for a quarter of their length, then recurved-spreading with slightly thickened entire tips; rudimentary ovary with minute erect styles scarcely 0.25 lin. long; capsule 0.25 in. in diam., very obtusely 3-angled, smooth, exserted on a curved pedicel 1.5–1.75 lin. long; seeds 1.75 lin. long, compressed-ellipsoid, smooth, glabrous. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora Capensis) Woody shrub or small tree to 3 m high with a papery bark; branches reddish-brown. Leaves with a petiole 1–3 mm long; stipules glandular, triangular, minute, dark brown; lamina 1.5–3.5 x 0.5–1.3 cm, obovate to lanceolate, rounded at the apex, cuneate at the base, entire, minutely pubescent especially beneath, rarely almost glabrous. Cymes reduced to solitary axillary subsessile cyathia on dwarf leafy branchlets; bracts scarious, 1 x 1 mm, rounded, margins ciliate. Cyathia 2.5 x 3.5 mm with cup-shaped involucres, minutely pubescent, at least at the base; glands 5, 1 x 1.5 mm, transversely elliptic, spreading; lobes 0.5 mm long, rounded, margin denticulate, ciliate. Male flowers: bracteoles deeply laciniate, apices ciliate; stamens 3.5 mm long. Female flower: ovary glabrous, subtended by an obvious 3-lobed perianth; styles 2.5 mm long, joined to halfway with spreading bifid apices. Capsule c. 9 x 9 mm, deeply 3-lobed, minutely pubescent, exserted on a reflexed pedicel 6–9 mm long. Seeds 4.5 x 3.5 mm, ovoid with obtusely pointed apex, slightly dorsi-ventrally compressed, smooth, grey, speckled; caruncle 2.3 mm in diameter, cap-like. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora Zambesiaca) Deciduous shrub or tree with milky latex, up to 3 m high; non-succulent, lacking thorns; fairly widespread along the eastern fringe of the Namib Desert and mountainous savanna, occurring mainly on stony and sandy soils on plains and slopes. BARK smooth, waxy, dark brown, peeling off in cream-coloured to golden-yellow papery strips; young branchlets slender, plum-coloured, hairless. LEAVES simple, spirally arranged, elliptic to lanceolate to oblanceolate to obovate, 17-32 x 5-9 mm; both surfaces pale green, finely and shortly downy, midrib prominent; margin entire, sparsely fringed with hairs; apex pointed to blunt; base tapering; petiole 2-4 mm, finely downy. INFLORESCENCE a solitary cyathium, carried at tip of dwarf shoot, yellow-green, small; October to May. FRUIT a smooth 3-lobed capsule, up to 6 mm in diameter. (from Trees and Shrubs of Namibia by Mannheimer and Curtis) |
| 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: | 02 Apr 2015 |
| Camera make: | PENTAX |
| Camera model: | PENTAX K-x |
| Lens aperture: | f/5.6 |
| Shutter speed: | 1/200 s |
| ISO speed: | 100 |
| Content last updated: | 18 Apr 2024 |
