Euphorbia lathyris

Caper spurge, Caper Spurge

Family: Euphorbiaceae · Type: biennial · Not Native

Conservation status: Cal-IPC Yes

Caper spurge is a naturalized biennial found in northwestern California, the Great Valley, central coastal California, southern California, Transverse Ranges, and Peninsular Ranges in disturbed areas at elevations below 200 meters. Flowering throughout the year, this plant produces small greenish flowers in clusters with distinctive four-branched umbel-like arrangements. Growing 50 to 150 centimeters tall with erect, glabrous stems, it has a distinctive leaf arrangement with proximal leaves opposite and four-ranked, and distal leaves arranged in a whorl of four. Its leaves are linear to lanceolate, 5 to 15 centimeters long, sessile and clasping at the base with acute tips. The fruit is a spheric, shallowly lobed capsule 8 to 15 millimeters long, containing brown seeds with a net-like surface.

Habitat: Disturbed areas

Bloom period: All year

Elevation: < 200 m

Bioregions: NW, GV, c CW, SCo, TR, PR

California counties: San Mateo, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino, Alameda, Siskiyou, Marin, San Francisco, Ventura, Santa Cruz, Mendocino, Orange, Santa Clara, Humboldt, Kern, Stanislaus, Trinity, Yuba, Butte, Sacramento, El Dorado, Contra Costa, Sierra, Solano, Yolo, Napa, Lake, Sonoma, Nevada, San Benito

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