Euphorbia setiloba
Encyclopedia
Euphorbia setiloba is a species of euphorb known by the common name Yuma sandmat. It is native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, where it grows in dry habitat. This is a small, clumping annual herb with slender stems lined with pairs of tiny hairy leaves. Each leaf is just a few millimeters long and oval in shape with a bluntly pointed tip. The minute inflorescence
is a cyathium
less than two millimeters wide. It has distinctive appendages which are white with a few narrow, sharp-pointed lobes. There is a red nectar gland at the base of each. At the center of the appendages are the actual flowers, one female and several male. The ovary of the female flower develops into a hairy, spherical fruit about a millimeter wide.
Inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...
is a cyathium
Cyathium
A cyathium is one of the specialised pseudanthia forming the inflorescence of plants in the genus Euphorbia . A cyathium consists of:...
less than two millimeters wide. It has distinctive appendages which are white with a few narrow, sharp-pointed lobes. There is a red nectar gland at the base of each. At the center of the appendages are the actual flowers, one female and several male. The ovary of the female flower develops into a hairy, spherical fruit about a millimeter wide.