Euphorbia lathyrus
Poisonous plant
Common names
caper spurge
Biostatus
Exotic
Category
Vascular
Structural class
Herbs - Dicotyledons other than Composites
Flower colours
Green, Yellow
Detailed description
A hairless, bluish-green biennial plant growing to a height of 1 - 1.5 metres.
Conservation status
Not applicable
Detailed taxonomy
Family
Synonyms
Euphorbia lathyris L.
Ecology
Flowering
Summer months
Year naturalised
1870
Origin
E. and C. Mediterranean but widely naturalised in Western Europe.
Other information
Poisonous plant
All species of Euphorbia are poisonous especially this which can cause blindness in people removing it by hand from the garden and then rubbing their eyes.
Etymology
euphorbia: After Euphorbus, a Greek physician who served King Juba of Numidia in 12BC. Juba named a cactus to honour Euphorbus and later Linnaeus named the entire genus after the physician.
NVS code
The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.
EUPLAT