Euphorbia nivulia - Leafy Milk Hedge

Leafy Milk Hedge is an open-crowned succulent-branched spiny, glabrous, deciduous tree up to 9 m tall and 1 m in girth. Bark is thick and rough. Branches are terete, 2.5 cm thick, with paws of sharp stipular spines arising from spirally-arranged tubercles. Alternately arranged leaves are stalkless or nearly so. Leaf-blades obovate-spoon-shaped to inverted- lanceshaped, 10-25 x 3-8 cm, rounded at the tip, tapered to the base, lateral nerves 6-8 pairs, obscure, thick, fleshy, with the midrib prominent beneath. Stipules are spiny, 5 mm long, paired on each spine- shield. Cyathia arise in stalked cymes of 3 each, in leaf axils, towards the tips of the branches, reddish. Stalks are 1 cm long. Glands are transversely oblong, yellowish. Fruits is triradiate, the lobes laterally compressed, 6 x 13 mm, smooth, glabrous, exsert on a pedicel, 1 cm long. Styles is stout, united to above the middle, 2 mm long. Seeds are ovoid- quadrangular, 4 mm long, smooth.