Euphorbia ericoides

Euphorbia ericoides is a slender plant growing a woody stem and reaching heights around 50 cm. The small, densely stacked leaves are linear and erica-like, slightly wider at the base and the margins rolled under. Leaf dimensions are from 4 mm to 8 mm long and 1 mm wide.

The stem-tip clusters of cyathia are yellowish, mostly from the pair of large bracts that encircle the rest of the bisexual false flower parts, including four crescent-shaped glands. Flowering happens from before midspring until after midautumn. The fruit is globose to three-angled.

The species distribution is coastal in the east of the Western Cape, also in the Eastern Cape and the south of KwaZulu-Natal. The photo was taken near the Sani Pass.

The habitat is rocky grassland, dune scrub and sandy fynbos, from the coast to the Drakensberg. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Pooley, 1998; iNaturalist; https://prod.worldfloraonline.org; http://redlist.sanbi.org).