Euphorbia antiquorum Linn.

Chinese name: 火殃勒

Common name:  Ancienta Euphorbia, Fleshy Spurge

Description:

Habit: Succulent treelets fruticose, 3 - 8 m tall, 5 - 7 cm in diam., milky abundant; stems 3- to 4-angled, multiramose at upper part; angl-ridges 1 - 2 cm high, 3 - 5 mm thick, margins with triangular-teethes

Leaves: Leaves alternate at apex of young branches or teethes, obovate or obovate- oblong, 2 - 5 cm long, 1 - 2 cm wide, apex rounded, base attenuate, entire, glabrous; lateral veins obscure, fleshy; petioles very shorted; stipules spiny, 2 - 5 mm long, present; bracteal leaves 2, connate at below, conformed to inflorescences, membranous, nearly as large as inflorescences

Flowers: Inflorescences solitary on leaves axils; peduncles 2 - 3 mm long; involucres broadly campanulate, ca . 3 mm high, 5 mm in diam., 5-lobed at margins; lobes suborbicular, margins denticulate; glands 5, entire; male flowers numerous; bracts filamentous; female flower 1, with longer stipes, often surpassing involucres; ovary-stipe with 3 perianthes at base; ovaries triangled-oblate, smooth, glabrous; styles 3, free; stigma shallowly bifid 

Fruits: Capsules trigled-oblate, 3-4 - 4 mm long, 4-5 mm in diam., trivaved cocci when maturity

Seeds: seeds subglobose, ca. 2 mm long and diam., tawny, smooth, ecarunculate.

Flowering: All year

Fruiting: All year

Distribution: Cultivated in Lantau, Kowloon, New Terr, Botanica Garden; Tropical Asia; cultivated in S-N China

Uses: Ornament; medicine