Israel wildflowers: Crescent Spurge

Derivation of the botanical name:

Euphorbia, Εὔφορβος, Euphorbus, after the Numidian physician Euphorbus, physician to Juba II, King of Numidia and Mauretania, about the end of the first century BCE.

falcata, sickle-shaped, falcate.
spurge from the Old French word espurgier (Latin expurgare), which means “to purge.” The sap of many herbaceous Euphorbia species have traditionally been used as a purgative, or laxative.

• The standard author abbreviation L. is used to indicate Carl Linnaeus (1707 – 1778), a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, the father of modern taxonomy.
• The standard author abbreviation Klotzsch is used to indicate Johann Friedrich Klotzsch (1805 – 1860), a German pharmacist and botanist.
• The standard author abbreviation Garcke is used to indicate Christian August Friedrich Garcke (1819 – 1904), a German botanist.

Inflorescence definition Cyathium: a cup-shaped involucre bearing several minute stamens (male flowers) and a pistillate flower consisting of an ovary on a long stalk (pedicel). The rim of the cyathium often bears one or more nectar glands and petaloid appendages; this feature is present in every species of the genus Euphorbia but nowhere else in the plantkingdom.