Family |
Euphorbiaceae
Euphorbia petiolata
Banks & Sol.
Euphorbia petiolata Banks & Sol.
(A. Russell, Nat. Hist. Aleppo, ed. 2, 2: 253, 1794; Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 2, p. 97; 1966)
Description
Life-form & habit: Annual or biennial, 20–60 cm tall, branched from the base; stems striate, pubescent to glabrescent, often reddish.
Leaves: Basal leaves distinctly petiolate, lyrate-pinnatifid with a large terminal lobe and smaller lateral lobes; cauline leaves progressively smaller, sessile, oblong to lanceolate, entire or dentate, often glaucous.
Inflorescence & flowers: Terminal cymes of typical euphorbiaceous cyathia; glands purple to reddish, transversely oblong, with short horn-like appendages. Involucral bracts leaflike, lanceolate.
Fruit: Capsule trilobed, 3–4 mm, glabrous, smooth, green turning brown at maturity; seeds ovoid, grey-brown, finely reticulate.
Flowering and habitat
Phenology: Flowers March–May.
Habitat & elevation: Fields, dry hillsides, steppe and waste ground; low to mid elevations.
Distribution
Lebanese distribution: Beqaa (Baalbeck, Ras Baalbeck, Hermel, Qaa), Anti-Lebanon, and coastal foothills.
Syrian distribution: Damascus plain, Aleppo, Palmyra, Euphrates valley, and Hauran.
Native range: Algeria, Cyprus, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon–Syria, Pakistan, Palestine, Turkmenistan, Turkey (POWO).
Doubtfully present: Egypt, Sinai (POWO).