Euphorbia hirta L.

Family: Euphorbiaceae

General Appearance

Euphorbia hirta L., it is an annual herb up to 15-50 cm high, hispid with long often yellowish crisped hairs. Stems many, usually terete, procumbent or ascending; Leaves simple, opposite, 2-4 x 1-1.4 cm, elliptic, lanceolate or obovate-lanceolate, acute or subacute, serrate or dentate, dark green above, pale beneath, base usually unequal obliquely rounded, stipules 1-2 mm, membranous, lanceolate-subulate, ciliate. Flowers unisexual, small, numerous and crowded together in dense terminal and axillary capitate cymes about 1 cm in diameter, involucre campanulate, ca. 1×1 mm, pilose, marginal lobes 5, triangular-ovate, glands 4, red, circular, oblong, or reniform, appendages white to reddish, narrowly elliptic to obdeltoid, to 0.3 × 0.2 mm, margin entire to slightly undulate. Male flowers 4-5, anthers red. Female flower, pedicel short, exserted from involucre, ovary 3-angular, sparsely pilose. styles 2, free, stigma slightly 2-lobed. Capsule 3-angular, 1-1.5 × 1-1.5 mm, smooth, shortly pilose, fruiting peduncle to 1.5 mm. Seeds narrowly ovoid, tetragonal, 0.7-0.9 × 0.4-0.5 mm, pink-red, sides transversely furrowed, caruncle absent.

Flowering in: Jul-Nov.

Life Form

Th

Phytochoria

The native range of this species is Tropical & Subtropical America.

Distribution in Libya

Al-Jafarah Plain:  Tripoli 1992

Marmarica Plateau:  Tobruk (Gabes region) 2023

First: Encyclopedia Flora of Libyan:

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Second: Researches and PhD theses, master theses, Sorted by Newest:

Mahklouf, M.H., & Al-Shaari, M.S. (2023) The first record of Euphorbia hirta L. (Euphorbiaceae) in the flora of Libya. Scientific Reports in Life Sciences 4 (4): 72-81. https://www.scientific-reports.com/index.php/srls/article/view/119/113, https://www.scientific-reports.com/index.php/srls/article/view/119, https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mohammed-Mahklouf

The first record of Euphorbia hirta L. (Euphorbiaceae) in the flora of Libya. 2023

El-Mokasabi, F.M. (2017) Studies on the Flora of Libya. Cont ROL, Research article I Botany l Version 1.

Studies on the Flora of Libya. 2017

Sherif A and Ben-Othman A. Checklist and Analysis of El-Naser Forest Flora. Bulletin, Nat Herb, Tripoli University, Libya. 1992; 3: 9-20.

 

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