1246

 

Euphorbia pulcherrima Willd. ex Klotzsch.

Synonym	:	Euphorbia erythrophylla Bertol.
Family	:	Euphorbiaceae
Local name	:	English         - Poinsettia
Flowering and fruiting period	:	August-January
Distribution	:	Native in Mexico and Central America, frequently cultivated in Tropical gardens
Distribution in kerala	:	All Districts
Habitat	:	Grown in gardens
IUCN Status		Least conserned
Endemic / Exotic		Exotic
Uses	:	The whole plant and its sap (latex) are used to make medicine. Despite safety concerns, people take poinsettia to treat fever, stimulate breast milk production, and cause an abortion.
Key Botanical Characters  : Densely leafy shrubs; branchlets terete; glabrous; latex milky, copious. Leaves alternate, ovate-lanceolate in outline, Inflorescence terminal, of cyathia on branched, stout peduncles, subtended by crimson to yellow bracts; bracts (ob)lanceolate, often oblique, to 8 x 3 cm; peduncles to 1.5 cm.  Staminate: Numerous, each consisting of a stamen with a glabrous filament and two 1-celled anthers surrounded by sterile staminate flowers. Pistillate flower(s): 1 or 2 in each cyathium, each consisting of a 3-angled ovary, thrust out of the cyathium on maturity, jointed to a pedicel, 3-celled, with 1 ovule per cell, on axile placentae; styles 3, jointed for most of the length; stigmas 2-fid.