Difference between revisions of "Euphorbia resinifera"
From Gardenology.org - Plant Encyclopedia and Gardening Wiki
Jump to navigationJump to searchm (1 revision(s)) |
(No difference)
|
Revision as of 18:12, 8 October 2008
Euphorbia resinifera | ||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plant Info | ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
Binomial name | ||||||||||||||
Euphorbia resinifera A.Berger. | ||||||||||||||
Euphorbia resinifera (Resin spurge) is a species of spurge native to Morocco, where it occurs on the slopes of the Atlas Mountains.[1]
It is a shrub growing to 60 cm tall, forming multi-stemmed cushion-shaped clumps up to 2 m wide. The stems are erect, succulent, superficially like a cactus (an example of convergent evolution in a similar semi-desert climate), four-angled, with short but sharp pairs of 6 mm spines on the angles, spaced about 1 cm apart up the stem.[1]
It is similar to its relative Euphorbia echinus, which occurs on the Moroccan coast and the Canary Islands.
It contains a high concentration of resiniferatoxin and is being used to develop a novel and powerful class of analgesics.[2]