Toothed spurge

I think the plant making its debut here today is toothed spurge, Euphorbia dentata, a rather inconspicuous native species. I’ve occasionally found it in my back yard, but I photographed this one half a mile away, in Great Hills Park, on October 2. If you sense a vague resemblance to poinsettia—though with white rather than red, and a Texan rather than a Mexican origin—that’s because the two are in the same (and very large) genus. So are the Texas natives fire-on-the-mountain, snow-on-the-mountain, and snow-on-the-prairie.

© 2013 Steven Schwartzman