Duration: Annual

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Prostrate annual forming open to moderately dense mat 5-45 cm in diameter herbage and stems finely pubescent to glabrate red-brown; or, tips of stems spreading-ascending and green among dense vegetation and in shade.

Leaves: Ovate-elliptic to oblong, 2.5-12 mm, entire to minutely toothed mostly toward leaf apex, with reddish blotch near the center.

Flowers: Cyathia on congested lateral branches but also solitary at nodes, inconspicuous, .4-.5 mm wide, involucral glands dotlike, rounded or nearly so, .1 mm wide, appendages absent to .2 mm wide, white to pink.

Fruits: Glabrous capsules, bright green with red margins and furrows, margins rather sharp, 1.3-1.7 mm long.

Ecology: Found on desert slopes, washes, playas, and flats from 200-3,500 ft (61-1067 m); flowers July-October.

Distribution: AZ and CA; south to MEX

Notes: Plant told apart by the combination of glabrous capsule and entire leaves.

Ethnobotany: Unknown for this species, other species in genera have medicinal use.

Etymology: Euphorbia is named for Euphorbus, Greek physician of Juba II, King of Mauretania, abramsiana is named for LeRoy Adams (1874-1956) a professor of botany at Stanford.

Synonyms: Euphorbia abramsiana

Editor: SBuckley, 2010

Plant: Prostrate annual forb branching from central point; herbage generally glaucous; stems sometimes pubescent, with milky sap

Leaves: leaves opposite, inequilateral at base, margins widely serrate

INFLORESCENCE: flower-like, generally 1 per node, dense on short lateral branches; involucre < 1 mm, obconic, glabrous; gland < 0.5 mm, round to elliptic; appendage wider than gland, entire or shallowly 2-lobed, white

Flowers: flowers monoecious borne in cyathia; petaloid appendages minute; ovary and capsule glabrous, ~1.5 mm long, widest at middle; seeds transversely ridged.

Fruit: Fruit: capsule, round to 3-angled or -lobed in X -section; Seeds 1-2 per chamber, generally 4-angled, smooth or sculptured; seed scar appendage sometimes present, pad- to dome-like

Misc: Sandy flats; < 200 m.