Volume 8 > Part 1 > Year 2005 > Page 289 > Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia

24. Euphorbia leucocephala Lotsywfo-0000963015

Coult. Bot. Gaz. 20: 350, tab. 24. 1895; Binojkumar & N.P.Balakr, Indian J. Forestry 15: 181. 1992.

Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.

Description : Shrub, up to 2 m high, neither succulent nor spiny, densely branching. Indumentum present, pale brownish. Stipules small (ca 0.3 mm), triangular. Leaves: petiole 7–20 mm long; opposite; blade elliptic, 2.2–2.5 by 0.5–0.7 cm, acutish at both ends, entire; venation distinct. Cyathia in large dichasia, their bracts white and showy, ca 7 by 2 mm; cyathial glands 5, ca 0.3 by 1 mm, with petal-like appendages ca 2 by 1 mm. Fruits subsessile (pedicel ca 1 mm); schizocarp ca 7 by 5 mm, hardly sulcate, glabrous. Seeds 4 by 2.5 mm, greyish, tuberculate, ecarunculate.

Distribution : Originally from C America (type from Guatemala), widely cultivated elsewhere.

Vernacular : Khritmat khao (คริสต์มาสขาว), khritmat nu (คริสต์มาสหนู), salatdai pradap khao (สลัดไดประดับขาว)(Central).

Uses: Ornamental shrub, with conspicuous large white bracts.