

Toothed Spurge (var. lasiocarpa) Euphorbia dentata var. lasiocarpa variety
Toothed Spurge (var. lasiocarpa) is an introduced annual herb, found in the lower 48 states.
More about this plant
Euphorbia dentata is a species of spurge known by the common names toothed spurge and green poinsettia. It is native to parts of North and South America, and is present elsewhere on the continents. Its true native range is uncertain. It is a noxious weed in some areas. This is a hairy annual herb with an erect or somewhat erect stem reaching anywhere from 20 to 50 centimeters tall. Its hairy, pointed leaves are a few centimeters long, widely to narrowly lance-shaped, and generally toothed. The inflorescence appears at the end of branches and contain cream or yellowish staminate or pistillate flowers just a few millimeters wide. The fruit is a lobed spherical or heart-shaped capsule about half a centimeter wide which contains three bumpy rounded seeds. Wikipedia →
Growing & care
USDA PLANTS · TRY- Hardiness
- ≥ zone 10 derived from its U.S. range
- Lifespan
- Annual
Wildlife & pollinators
How pollinator value is scored →❧ Caterpillar hosts ~7 caterpillar species
Euphorbia supports ~7 caterpillar species.
Native butterfly & moth caterpillars are the base of the terrestrial food web — most songbirds rear their young almost entirely on them. As a host for native Lepidoptera this is a modest genus.
Recorded feeding on Euphorbia in North America, including:
+ 8 more species → ↑ show fewer
✦ Bees specialist-bee host
Specialist native bees depend on it.
Some native bees are pollen specialists (oligolectic) — they raise young only on pollen from particular plant genera. Euphorbia is a recorded specialist-bee host, so losing it can mean losing the bee that relies on it.
Sources for this entry (11) Open & cited
Cite this page Open data, please attribute
PlantKey’s data is open under CC BY-SA 4.0 — free to reuse and adapt, with attribution and the same licence. Photos keep their own per-image licence + credit (see Sources above).
Loading…
BibTeX
Loading…