Euphorbia heptagona or klipnoors doing colours

The stems of Euphorbia heptagona grow to 3 cm in diameter often with only 6 to 8 angled ridges covered in long, thin and sharp spines. The spines seen here in winter are pale maroon to red brown on the green young growth. Spines are spaced without the visible hard shields found at the spine bases of some other Euphorbia species. Old spines turn darker until they dry out and becoming whitish grey, later to drop off. They leave small persistent scars on the ridges of the by then grey old stem sections lower down.

The flowers (or really false flowers) of E. heptagona appearing in winter and early spring are green and red. The sexes occur on separate plants (Euston-Brown and Kruger, 2023; Smith, et al, 2017; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; iNaturalist; iSpot).