Euphorbia regis-jubae facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Euphorbia regis-jubae |
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| In habitat, Teguise, Lanzarote | |
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Euphorbia
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| Species: |
regis-jubae
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Euphorbia regis-jubae is a type of flowering plant that belongs to the Euphorbiaceae family. It naturally grows in the eastern Canary Islands, western Morocco, and north-western Western Sahara. In Spanish, people call it tabaiba morisca. This plant has often been mixed up with another similar plant called Euphorbia lamarckii.
Contents
What Euphorbia regis-jubae Looks Like
Euphorbia regis-jubae is a shrub, which is like a bushy plant, and can grow up to 2 meters (about 6.5 feet) tall. It has light brown stems.
Its leaves grow in groups at the ends of the branches, forming what looks like a flower. These leaves are long and narrow, with a pointed or slightly flat tip.
The plant's flowers grow in special clusters called inflorescences. These clusters are usually simple and look like an umbel, which is a flower cluster where stalks of nearly equal length spring from a common center. They typically have five to eight "rays" or branches.
The small leaves around the flowers, called floral bracts, are greenish-yellow and quite large. They stay on the plant even after the fruit has grown. The fruits are capsules, which are like small seed pods, and they are light brown or red. The seeds have a small, stalked part called an elaiosome, which helps with seed spreading.
How Euphorbia regis-jubae Got Its Name
Euphorbia regis-jubae was first officially described by a person named Jaques Étienne Gay in 1847.
For a long time, this plant was often thought to be a different type of Euphorbia from the Canary Islands. People sometimes called it E. obtusifolia subsp. regis-jubae or E. lamarckii subsp. regis-jubae, treating it as a smaller group (subspecies) of those plants.
It was common for E. regis-jubae to be incorrectly identified. The name Euphorbia obtusifolia was often used for two different species found in the Canary Islands. One was E. regis-jubae, which grows in the eastern islands, and the other was E. lamarckii, found in the western islands.
In 2003, a botanist named David Bramwell pointed out that many books and papers from 1847 to 1993 had given the wrong names or wrong locations for these two plants. This shows how confusing plant identification can be!
Where Euphorbia regis-jubae Grows
Euphorbia regis-jubae is native to specific areas. You can find it in the eastern Canary Islands, which include Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, and Fuerteventura. It also grows in western Morocco and the north-western part of Western Sahara.
Its home is different from that of E. lamarckii, the plant it's often confused with. E. lamarckii is found in the western Canary Islands, such as Tenerife, north-western La Gomera, La Palma, and El Hierro. This difference in where they grow helps scientists tell them apart.
Images for kids
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Inflorescence
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Fruit
See also
In Spanish: Tabaiba salvaje para niños
