Euphorbia multiceps

Euphorbia multiceps, commonly in Afrikaans called vingers-en-tone (fingers-and-toes) and vingerhoedpol (thimble tuft), is a conical, much-branched, stem succulent reaching 60 cm in height. The branches from the central, conical stem decrease in height upwards forming the cone of numerous stem-tips, positioned close together. 

The small, erect, cylindrical to club-shaped stems are covered in numerous tubercles, each starting off as new growth at a stem-tip with a short-lived, small leaf on the bulge on the tubercle centre. 

The small, green to greenish yellow cyathia grow stalked at stem-tips, their peduncles later becoming the stem's sharp spines. The specimen depicted here has some of the typical ephemeral leaves at stem-tips, the green tubercles lower down pointed and already leafless.

Long-stalked, green fruit capsules, globose but for the three shallow segments, are visible on some stems. Some old, dry spines, not straight and with tiny branch-remains visible, are taller than the pedicels currently bearing fruit.

The species distribution is only in the central part of the Western Cape from Riversdale to the western Little Karoo including Ladismith, the Great Karoo and the west of the Northern Cape, in Namaqualand.

The habitat is gravelly slopes and flats in karoid shrubland. The species is not considered threatened in habitat early in the twenty first century (Frandsen, 2017; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; http://redlist.sanbi.org)