atoll research bulletin no. 392 the flora of - Smithsonian Institution ...

flower and reduced to a single stamen, anthers, yellow; female flowers, one per
cyathium, consisting of a stalked, 3-celled ovary with 3 bifid styles; fruit, 3 to 5 mm
across, subglobose, 3-lobed capsule (schizocarp), splitting at maturity into three 1-seeded
segments; seeds, 2.5 to 3.2 mm across, grey-brown, angular, sharply keeled on one side,
slightly tuberculate. Weed of roadsides and wasteplaces. 5(72), 6, 7, 8(9580).
Euphorbia heterophylla L.
syn. Poinsettia heterophylla (L.) Klotzsch & Garcke
"wild spurge"
Recent introduction. Mexico. Occasional. Erect, unbranched annual herb, up to 70
cm high, with hollow stems; leaves, alternate, the lower entire, oval or elliptic, with
irregularly-toothed margins, the upper leaves deeply lobed, the topmost leaves green or
with a purple-spotted (never red) base and clustered beneath the inflorescences; inflores-
cences, separately male and female borne in terminal cyathia; cyathium, a 5-lobed green
cup enclosing several male and one female flower and bearing a gland with a small
circular opening; fruit, a 3-celled capsule, explosively dehiscent; seeds, 1 to a cell, 2 to
2.5 mm across, subglobose, dark brown to black, rugose or tuberculate, with a keel and
a transverse groove at right angles to it. Weed of roadsides and ruderal sites. 3(58623,
58667), 4(102N).
Euphorbia hirta L. "garden spurge", "asthma plant", "hairy spurge", "old blood" te
tarai, te tarai Kutaie ("Kusaie, KosraeU)(K)
syns. E. pilulijera L.; Chamaesyce hirta (L.) Millsp.
Pre-World War I1 introduction. Pantropical. Abundant. Erect or decumbent,
scarcely branching, widely spreading, densely hairy annual herb, 6 to 60 cm high, with
white latex; leaves, 1 to 4 cm long and 0.5 to 1.5 cm wide, opposite, simple, elliptical,
oblong or ovate-rhomboidal, acute to obtuse tip, base obliquely acute, finely serrate,
stipulate, leaf surfaces appressed pubescent, green, often with red, brown or purplish
tinge, paler beneath; petioles, 2 to 3 mm long; flowers, monoecious, very small, greenish
white, petal-less, in cyathia arranged in 1 to 2 dense, axillary, globose clusters (cymes)
on short pedicels, 3 to 15 mm long; involucre 4- to 5-lobed, enclosing several male
flowers and 1 female flower, and with minute glands; male flowers, minute, surrounding
the female flower, each consisting of a single stamen; female flowers, on per cymatium,
consisting of a 3-celled ovary; fruit, 1 to 1.3 mm across, globose, hairy, brown, 3-lobed
schizocarp splitting into three 1-seeded segments at maturity; seeds, about 1 mm long,
irregular oblong with some faint transverse ridges. Weed in waste places and open areas;
pioneer plant in recently mined areas. 2, 3(58627, 58677), 4(114N), 5(21), 6, 7,
8(9554). --
- - -- -- - -- - - -- -- -- - - -