Euphorbia heterophylla L.
Family: Euphorbiaceae
Taxonomy: Plantae > Tracheophyta > Equisetopsida > Malpighiales > Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > E. heterophylla
Common name [English]: Lesser Green Poinsettia, Wild Poinsettia, Wild Spurge, Desert Poinsettia, Painted Euphorbia, Painted Spurge
Vernacular name [Malayalam]:
Nativity: Native of Tropical America
Habitat: Weed of crops, orchards, roadsides, gardens, waste areas and disturbed sites.
Description: Robust annual herbs, glabrous to pilose. Leaves alternate below, opposite above, 4-12 x 0.3-7 cm, broadly ovate, elliptic, obovate, or panduriform, rarely linear, glabrous or pilose, margins entire to coarsely serrate, apex acute, short-acuminate, or short-cuspidate, base rounded to cuneate, green, sometimes floral leaves white or with splotches of purple at base, never red; petioles 1-4 cm long; stipules absent or minute and gland-like. Cyathia in dense terminal cymes; involucre 2-2.5 mm high, glabrous, gland 1, cup-shaped with a circular opening, without an appendage; staminate flowers numerous. Capsules subglobose, 3-4 mm long, glabrous; seeds dark brownish gray to black, sometimes mottled, truncate-ovoid, angled, 2-2.5 mm long, coarsely tuberculate, ecarunculate.
Flowering and Fruiting: June-August
Uses: The plant is fed to rabbits grown in farms.
Cultivation: Wild
References
http://www.plantsoftheworldonline.org
https://indiabiodiversity.org