Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Single stemmed or simply branching erect perennial forb, leaves and stems bright green, glabrous, stems more than 20 cm long.

Leaves: First pair of floral leaves deltoid, usually longer than wide, leaf surfaces smooth, not warty, stem leaves elliptic and equally tapering at the base and tip, borne on short petioles, leaves alternate.

Flowers: Small flowers with yellow horned glands and no appendages, horns about 1/2 as long as the gland or longer, Inflorescences borne in a umbel-like pattern, usually with 3 branches, Inflorescences becoming dense with age.

Fruits: Small, 3-lobed capsule to 5 mm long, lobes not crested.

Ecology: Found from 4,500-7,000 ft (1372-2134 m); flowers May-September.

Distribution: AZ, NV and north to MT, east to ND, south to TX ; south to c MEX.

Notes: The keys to this species are the branches of the inflorescence (or number of flowers [actually small inflorescences] arising from leafy bracts) mostly 3, the inflorescences becoming dense with age, the first pairs of floral leaves deltoid, longer than wide, and the leaf surfaces being smooth, not warty, and the yellow glands with small horns.

Etymology: Euphorbia is named for Euphorbus, Greek physician of Juba II, King of Mauretania, while brachycera means short-horned.

Synonyms: Euphorbia brachycera var robusta, E. lurida, E. montana, E. odontadenia, E. robusta, Pyrenula leucoplaca, Tithymalus brachycera, T. montanus, T. robustus

Editor: LCrumbacher 2011, FSCoburn 2015