Botanical name:Euphorbia neriifoliaFamily:Euphorbiaceae (Castor family) Synonyms: Euphorbia edulis, Euphorbia pentagona
Indian Spurge Tree is a prickly, large, branched,
erect, succulent leafless shrub that occurs in dry, rocky and hilly
areas of North, Central and South India. It is a tree or shrub, 3-5 m
tall, hairless except for cyathia. Stems are 6-15 cm thick, green, with
5 spiral ranks of tubercles, ascending, branching from upper parts.
Leaves are alternate, apically clustered, persistent, fleshy; spine
shields small, stipules pricklelike, 2-3 mm; leaf-stalk short, 2-4 mm;
leaf blade obovate or obovate-oblong to spoon-shaped, 4.5-12 x 1.3-3.8
cm, fleshy, base narrowed, margin entire, tip blunt, apiculate; veins
inprominent. Cyathia in subat branch-ends cymes, flower-cluster-stalk
about 3 mm; cyathophylls membranous, falling off; involucre
bell-shaped, about 4 x 5-6 mm, lobes 5, rounded; glands 5, fleshy,
thick and entire. Male flowers many, bracts linear. Female flowers
rarely developed. Indian Spurge Tree is found in Peninsular India.
Medicinal uses: The latex or milky juice is
used for treating ear pain, skin diseases, warts, scabies etc. One of
the very extensive medicinal use of this plant is for pain in ear and
inflammation of the ear, for which juice extracted from the heated
leaves is used as ear drop.
Identification credit: Nandan Kalbag
Photographed in Garden of Five Senses, Delhi & Kumbharli Ghat, Maharashtra.
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The flower labeled Indian Spurge Tree is ...