Euphorbia melanadenia

Red-gland spurge, Red-Gland Spurge

Family: Euphorbiaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Red-gland spurge is a California native perennial found in southwestern and desert southern California regions on dry, stony slopes and flats at elevations below 1,300 meters. Flowering from December to May, this plant produces distinctive white petal-like appendages surrounding dark red to nearly black glands in small clusters. Growing with decumbent to ascending stems that repeatedly fork and develop a two-faced structure, it reaches modest heights with repeatedly branching stems. Its opposite leaves are small, two to nine millimeters long, ovate with asymmetric bases and acute tips, arranged in two distinct ranks along the stem. The fruit is a small, lobed, and tomentose ovoid structure about 1.5 to 2 millimeters long.

Habitat: Dry, stony slopes or flats

Bloom period: Dec-May

Elevation: < 1300 m

Bioregions: SW, DSon

California counties: Los Angeles, Imperial, Riverside, San Diego, San Bernardino

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