Euphorbia species of the garigue

John Holst · Post by **John Holst** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 8:56 pm

Hi

This is the first of many posts with pics of plants, - especially from the garigue area surrounding the Danish holiday centre at Bisqra just north of Mellieha.

I stayed at Malta last week, and in 2008 I stayed there for a week in March.

He are some Euphorbia species that have given me some trouble. Flora Europaea says that E. melitensis is another name for E. spinosa, and I think my pics show what looks like E. melitensis.

Euphorbia A and B give me trouble because I am not sure which species can be found in the garigue.

Euphorbia heliscopia, it would be if found i my home country (Denmark), but are there alternatives in Malta?

I can see that I have to resize my jpg-pics, so they will be attached to next posts.

John Holst

John Holst · Post by **John Holst** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 9:48 pm

When I chose a Filename and press 'Submit' or 'Add Attachment', I just get the message:

'No post mode specified'

So I'll have to fight a bit with the issue of how to attach a pic-file.

John Holst · Post by **John Holst** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 9:56 pm

Pic 1

John Holst · Post by **John Holst** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 9:57 pm

Pic 2

John Holst · Post by **John Holst** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 10:00 pm

1st pic of species A.

John Holst · Post by **John Holst** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 10:01 pm

2nd pic of species A

John Holst · Post by **John Holst** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 10:04 pm

1st pic of species B.

John Holst · Post by **John Holst** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 10:05 pm

2nd pic of species B.

John Holst · Post by **John Holst** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 10:08 pm

This is my last Euphorbia pic for now. I hope some of you who are familar with the Maltese flora can help me.

robcar · Post by **robcar** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 4:31 pm

The first one is E. melitensis
The second one (A) should be E. pinea
B should be E. exigua
The last one is E. helioscopa

IL-PINE · Post by **IL-PINE** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 9:57 am

agree with robcar.

yes there is some issue about Euphorbia melitensis and Euphorbia spinosa. Maltese people say its endemic, other botanists say it is just a form of E. spinosa.

John Holst · Post by **John Holst** » Sat Apr 18, 2009 2:24 am

Thanx for helping me out. I think I will stick to the melitesis name and skip spinosa.

E. exigua I know very well from Denmark, where it is a small plante never getting higher than 30 cm. Flora Europaea says that E. exigua is up to 35 cm.

But species B plants were all between 50 and 70 cm high, so it has to be another species than E. exigua.

John Holst · Post by **John Holst** » Sun Apr 19, 2009 9:07 pm

Im still sorting out all my pics from 2009. Today I found this one, which I would say shows a typical very small specimen of Euphorbia exigua.

But since this is not Denmark, you may have a more correct name for this Euphorbia.

IL-PINE · Post by **IL-PINE** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 7:25 am

yes it is

John Holst · Post by **John Holst** » Sat May 02, 2009 1:58 pm

I've done a bit of botanical detective work on species B without coming to any definitve conclusion. As it is right now my best guess is Euphorbia terracina.

Post by **MWP admin** » Tue May 05, 2009 4:27 pm

I have always seen E. terracina being multibranched at the base with reddish stems growing in sub-sandy places. On the other hand, I assume that if seeds are carred in ruderal/soily areas, it will also grow fine (perhaps a bit atypically) despite not its preferred habitat.

The photo is not really good for conclusions, though I might also put in the bowl of ideas a distorted E. pinnea.

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