Euphorbia peplus

Petty spurge

Family: Euphorbiaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Petty spurge is a naturalized annual found in the Central Western California, Southern Sierra Nevada, and Desert regions in disturbed areas at elevations below 1,200 meters. Flowering year-round, this plant produces small, subtle flowers in leafy clusters with inconspicuous green-white coloration. Growing with erect stems 10 to 45 centimeters tall, it develops a delicate branching structure with leaves arranged alternately along the stem. Its leaves are obovate to oblanceolate, 1 to 3.5 centimeters long, with symmetric bases and obtuse tips, typically arranged in a distinctive whorl of three at the uppermost stem. The fruit is a small spherical structure approximately 2 millimeters wide with two-keeled lobes, producing white to gray seeds with a distinctive pitted surface.

Habitat: Common. Disturbed areas

Bloom period: All year

Elevation: < 1200 m

Bioregions: CA-FP, SNE, DSon

California counties: Los Angeles, San Diego, Kern, Ventura, Alameda, Santa Cruz, Orange, Riverside, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, San Bernardino, Sierra, Fresno, Santa Clara, Tehama, Santa Barbara, Shasta, Inyo, Tulare, El Dorado, San Mateo, Marin, San Joaquin, Butte, Mariposa, Sacramento, Yuba, Contra Costa, Sonoma, Napa, Humboldt, Mendocino, Lassen, Yolo, Stanislaus, Solano

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