Euphorbia clavarioides commanding respect

Meet Euphorbia clavarioides at its impressive best, a mature and well developed specimen of one of the widely admired, local caudiciform euphorbias.

If the species still has recognised varieties, this would be E. clavarioides var. clavarioides on account of its rising, central mound. Var. truncata is said to grow flat. The photo was taken in Lesotho. 

Animals that share the natural habitat with plants like these are far more likely than people to leave them in peace, so that they can grow to these magnificent proportions. When they can't eat them, they may sometimes trample them in their wanderings to find food, but their impact would remain sporadic and inadvertent. 

Human curiosity starts off in great innocence, but often and soon grows to acquisitive and even destructive tendencies, related to greed. This puts other species at risk increasingly these days, as there are so many people everywhere where anything else lives. Such human tendencies can and should be channelled towards conservation as it is in the interests of all. This is proving difficult, as those understanding the nature of biodiversity and its role in the survival needs of all species, is still such a small minority (Frandsen, 2017; Smith, et al, 2017; Pooley, 1998; Van Wyk and Malan, 1997; iNaturalist).