Euphorbia gummifera
| Family: | Euphorbiaceae |
| Full name: | Euphorbia gummifera Boiss. |
| Location: | Along B4, E of Luederitz (2615DA) |
| ID status: | Fairly certain |
| Afrikaans common name(s): | Gomnoors |
| English common name(s): | Gum milk bush, Southern Namib euphorbia |
| Synonym(s): | - |
| Status: | Near-endemic |
| Description: | A leafless spineless bush, forming large clumps 3–4 ft. high, succulent at the younger parts, woody below, dioecious, with a very disagreeable odour; flowering branches erect or ascending, 2.5–5 lin. thick, slightly angular from raised lines decurrent from the slightly prominent leaf-scars, glabrous, or, in the female plant, minutely tomentose for about 0.25 in. immediately under the inflorescence at the apex, more or less covered with a dry gummy or resinous exudation (not velvety-pruinose as described by Boissier); leaves minute, rudimentary, scale-like, fleshy, recurved, dark red, only seen on the tips of growing branches, soon deciduous; male plant with 1 or more dense sessile clusters of involucres at the tips of the branches, about 0.25–0.5 in. in diam.; female plant with a few sessile involucres at the tips; involucres sessile, about 0.167 in. in diam., less when dried, cup-shaped, apparently reddish or purplish, minutely white-tomentose, with 4–5 glands and 5 subquadrate or rounded entire lobes; glands about 0.667 lin. in their greater diam., transverse, reniform or half-orbicular, entire, apparently dark red or purple; capsule about 0.5 in. in diam., obtusely 3-angled, very minutely and not densely puberulous, probably somewhat fleshy when alive, exserted on a pedicel not longer than the involucre, erect; styles 0.75 lin. long, stout, channelled, bifid at the apex, spreading; seeds 3 lin. long, and 3.5 lin. broad, somewhat subquadrate, compressed dorsally, with a ridge down the back, smooth, at first brown, becoming white when perfectly ripe. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora Capensis) Multistemmed, spineless, much-branched, succulent shrub, forming dense, dark clumps usually up to 1.3 x 2 m, rarely larger. Flowering branches dull dark green, up to 10 mm in cross-section, new growth reddish. Inflorescence sessile, terminal; cyathia many and clustered in male, fewer in female. Glands maroon. Male and female flowers on separate plants. Flowering winter to spring. Capsules held erect on very short stalks, bright pink ripening to pale brown, up to 12 mm in diameter when mature, larger just before drying, obscurely 3-angled, thinly covered with minute hairs. This species is characteristic of the winter rainfall areas of south-western Namibia and the Northern Cape Province of South Africa, where it tends to occur in scattered stands mainly on gentle sandy and gravelly slopes, sometimes also on quite steep hillslopes. It can host Hydnora africana, a root parasite. Oryx have been reported browsing it in dry seasons, and the seeds are eaten by small mammals and birds. (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: | M Weigand |
| Date of photograph: | 13 Feb 2020 |
| Camera make: | samsung |
| Camera model: | SM-G975F |
| Lens aperture: | f/2.4 |
| Shutter speed: | 1/1996 s |
| ISO speed: | 50 |
| Content last updated: | 18 Apr 2024 |
