Euphorbia clavarioides cyathia and leaves

Euphorbia clavarioides grows pretty yellow cyathia, flowers or false flowers that may cover much of the visible upper plant surface, the many rounded stem-tips that cohere closely in the compact plant. The cyathia are solitary and stalkless. Three to six spreading glands with pointy tips are bright yellow, dull yellow or yellow green. Flowering happens from spring to summer.

In the centres of the stem-tips there are tiny rosettes of small, pointed, fleshy leaves. As the stems elongate tubercles, small green bulges, form on the stem surfaces, each having one of these small leaves at its tip. The leaves then spread as the tubercles grow and become discoloured, later dropping off. What is left on the stems is the whitish grey scars visible at the tips of all the older tubercles. The occasional dead leaf neglects its dropping off duty, persisting for a time as can be seen in the photo (Frandsen, 2017; Smith, et al, 2017; Pooley, 1998; Van Wyk and Malan, 1997; iNaturalist).