Euphorbia spinea healthy stem-tips

After winter rain this Namaqualand Euphorbia spinea plant displayed a good green colour and healthy stem-tips. The green is soft and pale, somewhat dull, meandering into grey or blue, the surfaces smooth. After a long, dry and hot summer the stems are likely to be purple and their tips spiny from desiccation.

The small, blackish scale markings indicate where the earlier, ephemeral new growth leaves had dropped off. They appear opposite (and also decussate) on these stems (Van Rooyen and Van Rooyen, 2019; Frandsen, 2017; iNaturalist; JSTOR).