Euphorbia paralias, the sea spurge, is a species of flowering plant in the family Euphorbiaceae, native to Europe, northern Africa and western Asia.[1]
Euphorbia paralias | |
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Sea Spurge in La Revellata, Corsica | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Malpighiales |
Family: | Euphorbiaceae |
Genus: | Euphorbia |
Species: | E. paralias |
Binomial name | |
Euphorbia paralias | |
The species is widely naturalised in Australia.[2] It invades coastal areas, displacing local species and colonising open sand areas favoured by certain nesting birds.[3] Major eradication programmes have been undertaken in some areas, for example by Sea Spurge Remote Area Teams in Tasmania, with great success.[4]
It is an erect, glaucous, perennial plant growing up to 70 cm tall. The plant has many stems, dividing into 3-5 fertile branches, each branching further. The cauline leaves (arising from the stem, without stalk) are crowded, overlapping, elliptic-ovate (ovate toward the top of the stems), fleshy and 5 to 20 mm long. Leaves on fertile branches are circular-rhombic or reniform. Flower head on a solitary cyathia, found in upper forks or at the apex, surrounded by bell-shaped bracts. Female flowers are with styles that divide into two short stigmas, flowering September–May. Fruit is a capsule flattened from above or nearly spherical, deep furrows, wrinkled on keels. Seeds ovoid, pale-grey and smooth. There is a kidney-shaped fleshy outgrowth from the seed coat.[5][2]
Taxon identifiers |
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