Euphorbia perangusta

Euphorbia perangusta grows clumps of stems branching from the base and reaching 1 m in height. The columnar stems are about erect, the stem ridges having thin, sharp and long spines in pairs.

On mature plants the uneven growth in thickness of the stems is more evident than on a young well-tended specimen as the one in picture. The number of ridges change, becoming uneven and wavy along their length, broadening near some spines and contracting in between, the hard ridges continuous.

The species distribution is in a small area in the Marico in North West. It may form part of E. knobelii found in the same region north of Zeerust, or closely related to that species. This plant was photographed in the greenhouse of the Botanical Garden of the North-West University at its Potchefstroom Campus.

The habitat is thornveld and wooded grassland, the plants among rocks on quartzitic slopes and ridges at elevations from 1000 m to 1200 m. The plants fortune in the veld has been linked to that of E. knobelii, a plant considered to be endangered in its habitat early in the twenty first century (Frandsen, 2017; Veld & Flora, December 1999; http://redlist.sanbi.org).