Euphorbia avasmontana stems

Age brings about colour changes in Euphorbia avasmontana. Green and yellow abound on new growth. Grey settles on the old parts… the sign of seniority. Not all the mature stems participate in every celebration, socialisation being such an uneven affair among the elderly.

Flowering and even the occasional bold upper branching may occur from the new stem-tip exuberance. The outer stems curve up low down only to straighten into erect positions, continuing parallel to their mates, or nearly so, for the rest of their lives.

What really constitutes another part of your own body can hardly be called your mate? Succulents often get subdivided into cuttings by gardening people, turning body parts into relatives, albeit genetically identical as clones in vegetative reproduction. Nature does that too, particularly in succulents, as rooting of a broken-off part may happen in time; succulence allowing for survival of the unfed part for longer than, for instance, soft herb losses under a hot sun. The chance to live is grabbed by all nature’s tenacious ones wherever possible.

The two varieties previously recognised for this species don’t seem to be upheld any longer. This one is or was probably var. avasmontana (Frandsen, 2017; Smith, et al, 2017; iNaturalist).