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Pictured: Euphorbia esula — the species. This variety isn’t separately illustrated.
Euphorbiaceae family

Leafy Spurge (var. esula) Euphorbia esula var. esula variety

Leafy Spurge (var. esula) is an introduced perennial herb, found in Canada and the lower 48 states.

More about this plant

Euphorbia esula, commonly known as green spurge or leafy spurge, is a species of spurge native to central and southern Europe, and eastward through most of Asia north of the Himalaya to Korea and eastern Siberia. It can also be found in some parts of Alaska. Wikipedia →

⚠ Invasive here — plant a native instead USDA + GBIF

Leafy Spurge (var. esula) is flagged invasive in the U.S. These natives fill a similar niche — same growth habit, bloom season, height, and region — so you keep the look and feed local wildlife instead of spreading a problem.

Part of why it adapts so well: Leafy Spurge (var. esula) is a polyploid complex — multiple chromosome races are on record (2n = 24, 60). Spare genome copies give a plant extra raw material to evolve fast, and polyploidy is a documented correlate of successful plant invasions (te Beest et al. 2012). A labelled association from open cytology (ChromoDB), not a prediction for your specific site.

Common Milkweed
Native ★
Common Milkweed
Asclepias syriaca
●●●●●
Swamp Milkweed
Native ★
Swamp Milkweed
Asclepias incarnata
●●●●●
Butterfly Weed
Native ★
Butterfly Weed
Asclepias tuberosa
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New England Aster
Native ★
New England Aster
Symphyotrichum novae-angliae
●●●●●
Matched on growth habit · bloom months · mature height · shared U.S. range (USDA + GBIF) — a starting point, not a prescription.

Growing & care

USDA PLANTS · TRY
Conditions
Sources · Conditions
Cold hardiness (derived) — Hardiness
Hardiness
≥ zone 4 derived from its U.S. range
Size & form
Sources · Size & form
USDA PLANTS — Lifespan
Lifespan
Perennial
In the garden
Herb layer — Sits in the herb of a layered food forest or polyculture.Open guide →
derived roles
Species characteristics from USDA PLANTS (public domain) + TRY (CC BY) — general guidance, not a guarantee for your exact site. Deer "browsing" is documented palatability, not a deer-proof claim.

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:

Chamaesphecia empiformis · clearwing moth Chamaesphecia tenthrediniformis · clearwing moth Cydia deshaisiana · Jumping Bean Moth Danaus plexippus · Monarch Episimus argutana · leafroller moth Erinnyis ello · Ello Sphinx
+ 8 more species →
Erinnyis obscura · Obscure Sphinx Ethelgoda texanana · leafroller moth Eudryas unio · Pearly Wood-Nymph Hyles euphorbiae · Spurge Hawk-Moth Hypercompe scribonia · Giant Leopard Moth Lobesia euphorbiana · leafroller moth Lobocleta perirrorata · geometer (inchworm) moth Lobocleta plemyraria · Straight-Lined Wave Moth
Keystone count (genus-level) from Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use records. Named species (a documented Nearctic sample, not exhaustive) from NHM HOSTS (CC0).
✦ 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.

Xerces pollinator conservation →
Specialist hosts from Smith et al. 2024.
Species thumbnails re-hosted from iNaturalist — Creative Commons, credited per image (hover for credit). Click any species to see it on iNaturalist. Not exhaustive; many taxa have no openly-licensed photo yet.
Sources for this entry (12) Open & cited
[01] Scientific name & family — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[02] Growth habit & duration — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[03] Native status & distribution — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[04] Common name — USDA PLANTS (via GBIF)
[05] Invasive / introduced status — US-RIIS v2.0 (USGS)
[06] Description — Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
[07] Ecological value — Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts · Smith et al. 2024 (CC BY)
[08] Cold hardiness (derived) — Derived from U.S. range × USDA PHZM zones
[10] Caterpillar host count — Warren II 2026 (Dryad, CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[11] Caterpillar species — NHM HOSTS (CC0)
Spot an error or have a better photo? Every field links to its source, and the whole dataset is open.
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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).

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