Caustic Spurge
Leaves & Stems
Ellura
Caustic Spurge
Over-ripe Fruit
 
                      
Caustic Spurge (Anisophyllum sp)Class: Plants (Plantae) - Land Plants (Charophyta) - Land Plants (Equisetopsida)
Order: Spurges, Violets & Allies (Malpighiales)
Family: Spurge (Euphorbiaceae)     iNaturalist Observation
Species: Caustic Spurge (Anisophyllum sp)
This Photo:     Flowers & Young Fruit
Synonyms: Chamaesyce drummondii or Euphorbia drummondii
Other names: Caustic Creeper, Caustic Weed, Creeping Caustic, Flat Spurge, Mat-spurge or Milkweed

Thank you Dr Kym Nicolson for confirming the id of this species for us

General Species Information:
Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere
We used to have this down as Euphorbia drummondii, then some years ago they split them into over 10 different species.
Dr Nathan Taylor said on iNaturalist "The plants can't be keyed without looking at seeds."
Since we've never collected the seed, we don't know which of this Anisophyllum section (a subset of the Euphorbia genus) they are.

Copyright © 2004-2024 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 18-Jan-2004
This species is classed as LC (Least Concern) in the Murray Mallee, SA, by DENR (Regional Species Status Assessments, July 2010)