Euphorbia virosa branching stem

Euphorbia virosa of the Namib Desert (and just south of the Gariep in South Africa), is a barren desert resident. This one looks a lot happier, or at least more comfortable in the luxurious surroundings of Kirstenbosch, where it takes effort to emulate arid conditions.

The spine ridges of the gifboom (poison tree) are continuous, about white on the plant in picture, the sharply pointed spines grey-tipped, angled out widely.

The bright yellow (false) flowers at the stem-tips can be quite striking when they appear in summer. They grow solitary or in horizontal groups of three. The cyathia are followed by reddish, capsular fruits (Frandsen, 2017; Smith, et al, 2017; iNaturalist; www.namibian.org; https://pza.sanbi.org).