Euphorbia pentagona - 10 Seed Pack - Indigenous Endemic Succulent - NEW

Euphorbia pentagona Seeds

Euphorbia is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Euphorbiaceae. Consisting of 2008 species, Euphorbia is the fourth largest genus of flowering plants. The family is primarily found in the tropical and subtropical regions of Africa and the Americas, but also in temperate zones worldwide. Succulent species originate mostly from Africa, the Americas and Madagascar. The common name "spurge" derives from the Middle English/Old French espurge ("to purge"), due to the use of the plant's sap as a medicinal purgative. The plants are annual or perennial herbs, woody shrubs or trees with a caustic, poisonous milky sap (latex). 

In the genus Euphorbia, succulence in the species has often evolved divergently and to differing degrees. Sometimes it is difficult to decide, and it is a question of interpretation, whether or not a species is really succulent or "only" xerophytic.

About 850 species are succulent in the strictest sense. If one includes slightly succulent and xerophytic species, this figure rises to about 1000, representing about 45% of all Euphorbia species. Smaller Euphorbias make excellent potted plants while larger species are valuable landscaping plants.

Euphorbia pentagona is a South African endemic species from the Eastern Cape Province. Euphorbia pentagona is a medium-green Euphorbia; starts off as having a pentagonal prism shape where each vertex is extruded outwards, and each side is a mild concavity, along the height of the euphorb. Spines, red in colour when fresh, exit the body along each extrusion at equal intervals. As the spines age, they tend to lose their colour. The cross-sectional polygonal shape can gain extra vertexes as new branches grow from the sides. Often branches grow from where a spine once was, or should have been.