Species Euphorbia kraussiana

Pictures from Observations

Range:

Location unknown

Locations of Identifications

Etymology of Euphorbia:

Gk. eu- = well; phorbe = pasture or fodder; probably after Euphorbus, Greek physician to Juba II, King of Mauretania. Juba was educated in Rome and married the daughter of Antony and Cleopatra. He was apparently interested in botany and had written about an African cactus-like plant from the slopes of Mount Atlas, which he had found or knew about, which was used as a powerful laxative. That plant may have been Euphorbia resinifera, and like all Euphorbias had a latexy exudate (milky emulsion from certain plants). Euphorbus had a brother named Antonius Musa who was the physician to Augustus Caesar in Rome. When Juba heard that Caesar had honoured his physician with a statue, he decided to honour his own physician by naming the plant he had written about after him.

Etymology of kraussiana:

For Christian Ferdinand Friedrich von Krauss (1812–90), German naturalist, explorer and collector. In 1838, Krauss, an apothecary with a PhD in mineralogy, zoology and chemistry from Tübingen and Heidelberg (1836), sailed for the Cape. Here, he collected many specimens, especially molluscs and crustaceans, but also made a study of the geology, flora and fauna. From 1838–1839 he explored the areas between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth and in 1840 the bush and seashore around the Congella River, Pietermaritzburg. He left to join the Natural History Museum, Stuttgart, in 1940, becoming its director in 1956. He wrote Die Südafrikanischen Crusaceen (1843) and Die Südafrikanischen Mollusken (1848).

Scientific name:

Euphorbia kraussiana Bernh.

Common names:

Localities:

Kwa-Zulu Natal

Synonym of:

Unknown

Long etymology:

Authors:

Bernh.

Synonym status:

Accepted

Monoecious, erect shrub to 2 m, with slender stems. Leaves spreading or ascending, elliptic to oblancolate, petiolate, 50--120 mm long, paler beneath. Flower clusters in lax panicles, floral glands oblong. Sept.--Feb. Forest margins and coastal bush, SE (George to Mpumalanga).