Euphorbia pulcherrima
Euphorbia pulcherrima
Willd. ex Klotzsch, Allg. Gartenzeitung 2: 27.1834; Boiss. in DC., Prodr. 15(2): 71. 1862; Parker, For. Fl. Punj. ed. 1: 446. 1918 (Reprint 1973); Fl. China @ eFloras.org 11: 297; Radcliffe- Smith, Fl. Pak @ eFloras.org p. 115; keralapants.in; Poinsettia pulcherrima (Willd. ex Klotzsch) Grahm, Edinb. New Philos. Journ. 20: 412. 1836; Dressler, Ann. Mo. Bot. Gard. 48(4): 335. 1962.
More or less erect, sparingly branched shrub, wood soft, 1-3 m tall; latex copious, milky.Branchlets terete, glabrous. Leaves alternate; petioles 2-5 cm long, glabrous; leaf blade ovate or ovate- lanceolate, 6-20 cm x 3-7 cm, apex acute or acuminate, base attenuate or cuneate, margin entire or irregularly crenate-serrulate to repand-dentate or shallowly lobed, lateral nerves up to 20 on each side of midvein subglabrous and dark green above, sparingly puberulous and paler beneath. Stipules minute, sessile, glandular,caducous. Cyathia in a terminal very congested synflorescence subtended by few to many petiolate leaf-like bracts, bracts narrowly elliptic, 3-7 cm x 1-2 cm, usually entire, sometimes repand-lobed, scarlet; peduncle branched, 0.3-1.5 cm. Cyathia globose to ovoid, 7-10 mm x 6-8 mm. Involucre light green, lobes 5, lacerate, red in colour, glabrous, usually with 1, rarely 2 lateral yellow, compressed, 2-lipped gland/s, 4-5 mm x ca. 3 mm. Flowers pedicellate, unisexual. Male Flowers: Many, usually exserted from involucre, each male flower reduced to a single stamen, with an articulation at junction of pedicel and filament, subtended by slender, linear, pilose bracts/ bracteoles; filaments glabrous. Female Flowers: Solitary and central in cyathium, pedicellate, reduced to single ovary, ovary articulated,exserted on maturity.Ovary 3-angled and 3-locular, each loculus with one ovule on axile placentas; styles 3, jointed for most of the length,deeply bifid. Capsule 3-lobed, globose, ca. 2 cm x 1.5 cm, smooth and glabrous. Seeds ovoid, ca. 10 mm x 8-9 mm, grey or light grey, ecarunculate.
Common Names: Christmas Flower, Poinsettia; Lal Patti (Hindi)
