Euphorbia nutans

Eyebane spurge, Eyebane Spurge

Family: Euphorbiaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Eyebane spurge is a naturalized annual found in the Great Valley, central Coast, southwestern California, and desert regions in disturbed areas at elevations below 300 meters. Flowering from April to October, this plant produces white to red petal-like appendages in small cyathia clustered along its stems. Growing with repeatedly forking stems 10 to 40 centimeters tall that become less hairy with age, it has a distinctive two-faced branching pattern. Its opposite leaves are subsessile, oblong, 8 to 35 millimeters long, with finely toothed edges and slightly asymmetric bases. The fruit is a small 2 to 2.5 millimeter ovoid structure bearing black to brown seeds with shallow wrinkles.

Habitat: Disturbed areas

Bloom period: Apr-Oct

Elevation: < 300 m

Bioregions: GV, c CW, SW, DSon

California counties: El Dorado, San Bernardino, Shasta, Inyo, Santa Barbara, Riverside, Butte, Placer, Sacramento, Amador, Sutter, Los Angeles, Orange, Yolo, Sonoma, Trinity, San Joaquin, Tehama, Nevada

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