Euphorbia clandestina old stem, young branches

Why not venture into subsidiary projects when the main business is so well established? Even the one-track, palm tree style Euphorbia clandestina might eventually abandon its vertical only preoccupation in favour of something lateral.

The neat, spiralling rows of evenly sized and spaced tubercles are continuous around the stem, resembling the red and white striped helix on the pole outside the barbershop. No branch deviates from this standard, although branches will not go to such lengths (Smith, et al, 2017; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; iNaturalist).