Euphorbia loricata leaves and cyathia bracts

Euphorbia loricata stem-tips bear clusters of narrow, oblong and channelled leaves. The spreading, glaucous leaves are blunt-tipped to acutely pointed, their entire margins sometimes red. The leaves are summer-deciduous, grown after winter rain; pinkish before they fall. Leaf dimensions are up to 7,5 cm long and 6 mm wide.

Pale green cyathia (pseudanthia or false flowers) are borne long-pedicelled in clusters at stem-tips. The cup-shaped cyathium is sessile and hairless on its bracts, surrounded by five oblong nectar glands and five fleshy, green lobes. The styles with spreading, divided arms are united in a column of 1 mm long on top of the ovary. A flower is about 6 mm in diameter.

In picture the “flowers” are lost; only the three or four rounded bracts that subtended them persisting like clover leaves. Some new, pink-tipped stalks promise more cyathia on this young plant. It was photographed in September. Flowering happens late in winter and early in spring.

The globose fruit capsule in which flowering culminates displays about three vertical surface furrows, only shallowly lobed. The capsule is hairless, 7 mm in diameter and still topped by the style. The spines are the persistent flower stalks (Grenier, 2019; Smith, et al, 2017; Frandsen, 2017; iNaturalist; http://llifle.com; https://worldofsucculents.com).