Hyssop Spurge

Hyssop Spurge, originally uploaded by Elizabeth Smith.

A flowering weed;
Hearing its name,
I looked anew at it.~ Teiji

I have to say that I consider this plant to be a weedy nuisance. I see it everywhere it shouldn’t be: mostly in my flowerpots and growing in the patio and driveway cracks. It flowers, it seeds, I weed it, it sprouts again.

Just to be contradictory, I also like weeds. And I happen to like the sound of this one: SPURGE. If I have the identification correct, I can further enjoy rolling the words “Hyssop spurge” around my brain.

The Haiku above reflects my feelings after identifying and naming a plant – I suddenly look at it differently. Perhaps it’s a personal connection, or maybe I like things to have a place in the world, even if it’s in a human-created concept. I also feel a shared sense of wonder with plant explorers from the past who passionately learned all they could about each new discovery.

Hyssop spurge is indeed considered a weed by most everyone, especially on the Internet, which abounds with elimination techniques. The one positive source I found was in the Botanical Dermatology Database, which describes the milky sap as used to treat warts, calluses and ringworm.

When broken, the stem exudes a prodigious amount of opaque white sap, which is typical of Euphorbias, and probably just as bitter and caustic as other family members such as Poinsettia and Devil’s backbone .

Now that I’ve researched this spurge, I see this species and its relatives just about everywhere. Identification is NOT my strong point; there are many different kinds of weedy spurges and I feel lucky to have found a name for this one.

Next time you are in the garden or taking a walk, take a second look at the flowering weed under your hand or heel – you may happen to find yourself looking at it with new eyes!

You can click on the largest image to view it on my Flickr photostream.

Wild poinsettia

Wild poinsettia, originally uploaded by Elizabeth Smith.

Wild Poinsettia
Poinsettia cyathophora
Euphorbia or spurge family

Another one of my favorite weeds, Wild Poinsettia grows in moist disturbed areas and pinelands, this one at the bottom of a chain link fence that borders a bike path and the back of a golf course. The golf course used to be a pine flatwoods habitat, and they kept the pines around the edges, but they spray herbicide nearly every year to keep the bike path from getting overgrown. These stands die back, but they return every summer. I’m glad I got to paint them before they disappeared.

The genus name Poinsettia honors Joel Roberts Poinsett, the first United States Ambassador to Mexico.
The species name cyathophora is from the Greek Cyathodes, meaning a small cup or urn, or cup-bearing. I think the flowers do look like a collection of little cups.  It’s related to our beloved Christmas poinsettia, which is poisonous as well, and both have the milky sap that is characteristic of many Euphorbias.

I’ve had a hard time painting this in the past. The red splotches are a peculiar color, depending on the light and the plant. They seem to range from a pale red to a fluorescent red tinged with orange. After seeing Sigrid Frensen’s beautiful orange berries  that she achieved with Opera Rose and Cadmium Yellow, I knew this might be the right color base to try!  It worked well, although the image above seems a little darker than the original.

This sketch on the right is from last year, with the failed attempt at red; the plants were sprayed before I could paint them again so I had to wait until now. This particular plant had the fiddle-shaped leaves often seen, but the leaf shapes (and colors) seem to be highly variable. 

Other common names for Wild Poinsettia are Painted Leaf, Fire-on-the-mountain, Painted Spurge, and Summer Poinsettia.