Euphorbia heptagona conquered

The yellow Euphorbia heptagona cyathia are explored by ants and people for very different reasons. This hairy-tailed ant hopes to find food. Articulated feet and hairy bodies are useful in conveying pollen, welcomed by many plants with open flowers (rather than arms).

People with cameras are the sign of the times: irrelevant to plants unless contributing to conservation or detrimental due to destructive actions. Even the uncaring ones that remain in the cities do harm from a distance through certain living habits. If the humans don’t take better care of nature, the veld may become too hot and botanically impoverished due to species extinction for them to visit. Heat and drought adapted Euphorbia species may become so commonplace in low diversity habitat as to not even meriting a picture any longer. That is if the land is not laid bare from cold-loving plant species departing.

The yellow false flowers seen here are male, the plant being dioecious. Erect, stalked stamens topped by yellow anthers grow scattered on top of the bulky involucres of male plants. Female flowers bearing ovaries and stigmas are found on separate plants, hopefully not too far away for an itinerant ant to reach.

E. heptagona is variable in appearance. There used to be about five recognised varieties, some with green, others with red spines. Evolutionary change is generally divergent, the variability increasing, not decreasing as challenges mostly multiply on the land. So, some varieties may have disappeared, or more likely, the judgment of too early splitting has been overruled via simplifying lumping performed by indoor decision makers (Euston-Brown and Kruger, 2023; Smith, et al, 2017; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; iNaturalist; iSpot; Wikipedia).