Israel wildflowers: Sun spurge

Euphorbia helioscopia, Sun spurge, Wartwort, Cat’s milk,
Hebrew: חלבלוב השמש, Arabic: حليب الريبة , حلابة , حلبلوب, Egypt: س’ده “Sa’ada”

Scientific name:   Euphorbia helioscopia L.
Common name:   Sun spurge, Wartwort, Cat’s milk
Hebrew name:   חלבלוב השמש
Arabic name:   حليب الريبة , حلابة , حلبلوب
Egypt:   س’ده “Sa’ada”
Plant Family:   Euphorbiaceae, חלבלוביים


Life form:   Therophyte, annual
Stems:   Up to c. 50 cm high; erect or spreading with 1-many stems, slightly hairy in upper part, each stem with 3–5 terminal fertile branches at first 3-branched and then dichotomously divided 1–3 times
Leaves:   Alternate, entire, dentate or serrate
Inflorescence:   Cyathium; Umbellate; five main apical rays, each one is 0.5-4 (8) cm long; each main ray branches into 3 secondary rays, which in turn branch into 2 tertiary rays
Flowers:   Cyathia solitary in the base of the fork or 1–3 terminal, c. 2 mm long, on short peduncles; green
Fruits / pods:   Capsule c. 2 mm long, c. 3 mm diam., smooth, glabrous; seeds ovoid, 1.5–2 mm long, brown, reticulate-pitted
Flowering Period:   January, February, March, April, May
Habitat:   Batha, Phrygana
Distribution:   The Mediterranean Woodlands and Shrublands, Semi-steppe shrublands
Chorotype:   Med – Euro-Siberian
Summer shedding:   Ephemeral


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. In classical Greek ευφορβοσ (euphorbos) means well fed.

helioscopia, Greek êlios, ηλιοσ, the sun; skopia, σκοπια, observing, looking out; referring to the habit of the flower heads of turning towards the sun.
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.

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.

Plants contain white lacteal juice.