Euphorbia clarkeana - Sind Prostrate Spurge

Sind Prostrate Spurge is an annual or perennial prostrate herb up to 25 cm long, stems branched, sparsely hairy; nodes annular; internodes 1-2 cm long. Leaves are nearly stalkless, oblong, entire or finely toothed towards tip along margins, oblique at base, blunt or somewhat pointed at tip, 3-13 x 1-5 mm (leaves on main stems larger), hairless; leaf-stalks about 1 mm long; stipules 2 or 3-clefted, each further deeply cut. Cyathia arise at branch-ends and in leaf-axils, solitary or 2-3 together on tiny-leaved shoots. Flower-cluster-stalks are about 1 mm long; involucre bell-shaped, about 1 x 0.7 mm, hairless; lobes triangular, hairy; glands 4, rounded, about 0.1 x 0.2 mm. pinkish; limbs of glands minute. Male florets: few; flower-stalks about 0.2 mm long; anthers subspherical; bracteoles bristly, about 1 mm long. Female floret: gynophore about 1 mm long; ovary about 2 mm in diam., sparsely hairy; styles free, each bifid; stigma capitate. Fruits subspherical, bluntly keeled, about 3 mm in diam., hairless; seeds obovoid, quadrangular, smooth, reddish brown, mucous when wet. Sind Prostrate Spurge is found in cultivated fields and roadsides, in open areas, on moist sandy soil, at altitudes of 100-3000 m in Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. It is also found in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Flowering: August-November.