Euphorbia milii var. splendens

Euphorbia milii var. splendens (Bojer ex Hook.) Ursch & Leandri, Mem Inst. Sci. Madagascar, Ser. B, Biol. Veg. 5: 148. 1955; E. splendens Bojer ex Hook., Bot. Mag. 56: t. 2902. 1829.

Armed sprawling perennial succulent with milky latex shrub, up to 60 cm long, profusely branched; branches ridged, obscurely 3-5-angled, ca. 7-8 mm diameter, densely spiny. Leaves alternate, clustered at apex of branches, sessile or subsessile; leaf blade obovate-oblong, 1.5-6.5 cm x 1-1.5(-2) cm, glabrous, base attenuate, apex rounded apiculate, margin entire, +/- 15 pairs of lateral nerves. Stipules modified into greyish paired spines, 1-1.3(-2) cm long. Cyathia borne on dichotomously branched peduncles in axils of upper branch leaves, peduncle (lower unbranched) 2-4 cm long. Cyathia campanulate, 3-4 mm x 3.5-4 mm subtended by 2 orbicular-reniform apiculate showy bright red, long lasting, basally connate petaloid bracts (cyathophylls), bracts 8-10 mm x 12-14 mm (Cyathia + bracts 1.2-1.5 cm across). Involucre campanulate, yellowish-red with 5 reniform-rounded glands, 1 mm x 2 mm, along the margin, alternating with 5 reddish laciniate scales or lobes; scales inflexed and covering the flowers in young state. Male Flowers: Many, pedicellate, pedicels articulate, 2-3 mm long, whitish. Filaments short, ca. 1 mm long, red; anthers 2-lobed, oblong to rounded, reddish, transversely dehiscent; bracteoles/bracts palmately lobed, ultimate lobes linear, pilose at apex. Female Flowers: Solitary in centre of cyathium, slightly exserted when mature, pedicel small, ca. 1 mm long. Ovary trilobed, smooth, glabrous, 3-locular with one ovule per loculus; styles 3, connate at base, bifid.Capsule 3-lobed, ovoid, ca. 3.5 mm x 4 mm, smooth and glabrous, slightly exserted from involucre. Seeds ovoid-terete, ca. 2.5 mm x 2 mm, grey-brown, reticulate, ecarunculate.

Flowering and Fruiting: Almost throughout the year
Common Names: Crown of Thorns, Christ’s Plant, Christ’s Thorns, Kiss me Not