Description
Euphorbia squarrosa is a succulent Euphorbia with a fleshy underground root of unique appearance. This plant sometimes produces beautiful monstrous growth of variable appearance with a strange lumpy caudex which is rubbery-textured (much like a tumor) creamy or pale greenish coloured. The lumps only a few centimetres across.
It is a mutation that formed on a normal Euphorbia squarrosa it was cut off and started on it’s own. Most of the green branches appear bilaterally flattened, two-ribbed like in young seedling (for this reason it has often been referred erroneously to Euphorbia stellata), but sometimes it will grow a branch that reverts back to a normal looking three-angled stem that distinguishes unequivocally it from Euphorbia stellata, while the rest of the plant remain mostly monstrous.
Stems: The standard Euphorbia squarrosa has a short, subterranean primary shoot equipped with a very large, swollen underground root (caudex). From its top emerges a wreath of green branches.
Branches: Creeping or semi-erect 4 to 20 cm long, usually 3-angled (but ribs may vary from 2 to 5), dark green- frequently twisted.
Spines: Greyish from the tubercles along margins.
Origin and Habitat
Garden origin (Nursery produced cultivar)
Cultivation and Propagation
This is a small, slow-growing, but easy to cultivate succulent Euphorbia, and is suitable as a container plant. It needs to be kept warm, not less than 10 C in the winter (but when dormant and dry they are relatively cold tolerant).
It grows well in a very draining mineral potting substrate. It does not like its compost drying out for very long periods when the weather is hot. It needs constant moisture during the Summer, but it doesn’t like winter water, as it rots easily.
Sun Exposure: Light shade.
Propagation: Cuttings.
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