Euphorbia dendroides

Tree spurge

Family: Euphorbiaceae · Type: shrub · Not Native

Tree spurge is a naturalized shrub found in southern California and western Transverse Ranges in disturbed areas at elevations below 550 meters. Flowering throughout the year, this plant produces yellow-tinted flowers in clusters from leafy branches. Growing as a rounded, much-branched shrub 10 to 20 meters tall with spreading stems marked by persistent leaf scars, it develops distinctive narrow elliptic to oblanceolate leaves 4 to 8 centimeters long. Its leaves are alternately arranged, crowded along the stem, with the uppermost leaves forming a single whorl of 4 to 7 leaves. The fruit is spheric, deeply lobed, approximately 5 to 6 millimeters in size with smooth seeds about 3.5 millimeters long.

Habitat: Disturbed areas

Bloom period: All year

Elevation: < 550 m

Bioregions: SCo, WTR

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.