Euphorbia Cotinifolia

Scientific Name: Euphorbia cotinifolia

Common Name: Red euphorbia

Family: The Euphorbiaceae, the spurge family

Names in other languages: Spanish (Lechero, Cotinilla, Cobrizo, Barrabás, Barbasco.)

General Information

Euphorbia cotinifolia is a broadleaf red shrub native to Mexico and South America. Treated as a shrub, it reaches 10 to 15 ft but can be grown as a tree reaching 30 ft. Small white flowers with creamy bracts bloom at the ends of the branches in summer.

Features of Euphorbia cotinifolia that make it identifiable:

Bark: Bark is light brown and may have above the surface rings around it.

Leaves: simple, pinnately-veined, bright red venation distinct, margin entire, leaf blade ovate-rounded, apex acute, base obtuse-rounded, 3-whorled, 4 to 6 cm long, 3 to 4 cm wide, deep burgundy ; 3 to 6 cm long; stipules up to 0.3 mm long.

Flower: Cyathia (inflorescences consisting of cuplike clusters of bracts enclosing unisexual flowers) numerous, peduncle up to 2 cm long; bracts broadly cup-shaped, highly inconspicuous, lobes 4 to 6, triangular, pilose on margin; male flowers numerous, bracts linear; female flowers protruding from enveloping bracts.

Fruit: Fruit capsules 3-angular-ovoid, smooth, sparsely pubescent to glabrous, up to 4mm in diameter; Seeds subglobose, brown, up to 3mm in diameter, foveolate (having tiny depressions on the surface).

Uses

Euphorbia is an herb. The parts of the plant that grow above the ground are used to make medicine. Euphorbia is used for breathing disorders including asthma, bronchitis, and chest congestion. It is also used for mucus in the nose and throat, throat spasms, hay fever, and tumors