Sun Spurge
Euphorbia radians
Family: Euphorbiaceae
Perennial from a thickened taproot. Flowers in spring before the foliage appears. The plant can look utterly different at different times of the year.
Hardy into the single digits (goes dormant, underground). Full to part sun, moderate water when established but make sure there is good drainage. Seldom been grown in cultivation.
Photo by Sue Carnahan, SEINET
Euphorbia radians on iNaturalist
Flowers used by many pollinators. Desert tortoises love to eat these. Larval host for the Obscure Sphinx Erinnyis obscura.
The genus Euphorbia is named for a Greek physician, Euphorbus of Juba II, King of Mauretania. The species epithet "radians" is derived from Latin meaning "that radiates abroad" and also "shining, beaming".
Found in desert transitions areas, desert grassland and desert scrub communities, pinyon-juniper woodlands, oak savannas in the southwestern United States in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas and in the deserts of Sonoran and Chihuahuan, southward to Oaxaca, Mexico.
Seeds developing on the sun spurge, photo by Sue Carnahan, SEINET
Sun Spurge after flowering when the foliage has grown a bit, photo by Sue Carnahan, SEINET