Euphorbia cuneata Vahl
Ara.: Ayoab.
Shrub or small tree, monoecious, 0.5-4 m in height, with scaly bark purplish-brown, matt or shiny at the branches and gold at the trunk or base. Branches with spiny branchlets arranged alternately and at right angles. Leaves (8-22 × 2-6 mm), sessile or subsessile, cuneate-spatulate, with rounded or emarginate apex, sometimes pubescent when young, with small glandular stipules. Inflorescences reduced to a single cyathium or grouped in terminal pleiochasia with 2-5 rays. Bracts (1.5-4 mm) similar to the leaves, with a ciliate margin. Cyathium (4-6 mm in diameter) with 5 nectaries 1.5-2.5 mm wide, saucer or funnel shaped, yellow. Stamens exserted. Styles 2 mm long, joined to halfway, with recurved, thickened and caniculate apices. Fruit a capsule (4-6 × 5-7 mm). Seeds (2-2.5 mm) subglobose, smooth and brownish, without caruncula.
Flowering:
No data for this region
Fruiting:
No data for this region
Habitat:
Rocky slopes, coastal sandy plains, on calcareous and sometimes chalky substrates.
Distribution:
East Africa, from Mozambique to Egypt, including the Arabian Peninsula. In North Africa it is present along littoral areas of the Red Sea in Sudan and Egypt, as well as the eastern desert of Egypt.
Conservation status:
A relatively common and widespread species. It is not considered threatened. In the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species it is listed as Least Concern (LC) at global level (Oldfield, 2020).