- Description:
Stems are erect and diffusely branched above. Smooth margined, oblong leaves are alternate
below and opposite above. Tiny flowers are surrounded by five, white, petal-like, cupped
bracts.
- Comments: A
unique feature of the spurges is their “false” flowers. The apparent petals are
really colored bracts. The flowers are tiny, borne in a cup-like structure and usually
overlooked. The Christmas poinsettia, native to Mexico, is a spurge with showy, red, leafy
bracts. Flowering Spurge blossoms attract mud daubers, paper wasps, spider wasps, flies
and short-tongued bees. Seeds are eaten by Mourning Doves, Horned Larks and many other
birds. Ants attracted to the edible appendage at the seed base help distribute the seeds.
Flowering Spurge is found on upland prairies in the eastern half of Kansas.
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