Family: Euphorbiaceae

Large upright shrub growing to about 12’ wide x 10’ high. Cooler weather makes the leaves turn a reddish color. Small greenish yellow flowers appear in warm weather.

Grow in full to part sun, low water, hardy to about 25° F.

Larval food plant for the calleta silkmoth (Eupackardia calleta). This plant is related to the famous Mexican Jumping Bean (Sebastiania pavoniana). Formerly known as Sapium biloculare or Sebastiania bilocularis.

The sap was famous as arrow poison and widely feared. Medicinal uses include treating sores. The seeds are a favorite food of packrats. This shrub is the host plant for a large native silk moth (Eupackardia calleta). The cocoons of this moth have been used by O’odham groups for Yaqui-style pascola leg rattles, and the O’odham name for the plant refers to a pascola dance step.

The genus name, Pleradenophora, is from the Greek pleros (very many), aden (gland) and phoros (bearing), alluding to many glands on leaves and subtending floral bracts. The species, bilocularis, means divided into or containing two cells or compartments.

Native to dry bajadas in Arizona, south into Sonora and Baja California.

Photo by robbart on iNaturalist
Pleradenophora bilocularis on SEINET