Duration: Annual

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Annual, delicate, erect or prostrate, upper stems with capillary branching.

Leaves: Linear to lanceolate, opposite, to 1 cm long.

Flowers: Staminate flowers 5-12 per cyathium, with small involucres to 1 mm, appendages longer than the glands.

Fruits: Capsules sharply 3-angled, 0.5-1 mm diameter, seeds smooth.

Ecology: Found from 2,000-5,000 ft (610-1524 m); flowers August-October.

Notes: This is a delicately branching, generally prostrate spurge, the keys to this species are the sharply angled 3-lobed capsules and smooth seeds.

Ethnobotany: Specific use of the species is unknown, but the genus was used as an infusion to treat diabetes, mouth, and skin sores, and as a bath to treat fevers, chickenpox, smallpox, and gonorrhea. In infusion of the roots was taken to invoke diarrhea.

Etymology: Euphorbia is named for Euphorbus, Greek physician of Juba II, King of Mauretania, while gracillima means most graceful or slender.

Synonyms: Chamaesyce gracillima

Editor: LCrumbacher, 2011