Biorepository Data Portal

Kearney and Peebles, 1969

Duration: Annual Nativity: Native Lifeform: Forb/Herb General: Annual, delicate, erect or prostrate, upper stems with capillary branching. Leaves: Linear to lanceolate, opposite, to 1 cm long. Flowers: Staminate flowers 5-12 per cyathium, with small involucres to 1 mm, appendages longer than the glands. Fruits: Capsules sharply 3-angled, 0.5-1 mm diameter, seeds smooth. Ecology: Found from 2,000-5,000 ft (610-1524 m); flowers August-October. Notes: This is a delicately branching, generally prostrate spurge, the keys to this species are the sharply angled 3-lobed capsules and smooth seeds. Ethnobotany: Specific use of the species is unknown, but the genus was used as an infusion to treat diabetes, mouth, and skin sores, and as a bath to treat fevers, chickenpox, smallpox, and gonorrhea. In infusion of the roots was taken to invoke diarrhea. Etymology: Euphorbia is named for Euphorbus, Greek physician of Juba II, King of Mauretania, while gracillima means most graceful or slender. Synonyms: Chamaesyce gracillima Editor: LCrumbacher, 2011