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]
References
- ↑ Jump up to: 1.0 1.1 Huxley, A, ed. (1992). New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. ISBN 0-333-47494-5
- ↑ Appendino, G. & Szallasi, A. (1997) Euphorbium: Modern research on its active principle, resiniferatoxin, revives an ancient medicine. [1]
