FoI
Leafy Milk Hedge
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Leafy Milk Hedge
ative Photo: Prashant Awale
Common name: Leafy Milk Hedge, Holy Milk Hedge, Dog's Tongue • Bengali: sij • Hindi: Katathohar, Senhur, Sij, थोर Thor • Kannada: dubbakalli, dundukalli elegalli, gutagalli • Malayalam: ela-calli, ilakalli • Marathi: thor, nivarang, seej • Oriya: svarasana • Sanskrit: adhoguda, gandira, guda, mahavrksha • Tamil: ilakalli, manjevi, nanangalli, • Telugu: akujemudu, akukalli, bonthajamudu
Botanical name: Euphorbia nivulia    Family: Euphorbiaceae (Castor family)
Synonyms: Euphorbia neriifolia Roxb., Euphorbia helicothele

Leafy Milk Hedge is an open-crowned succulent-branched spiny, glabrous, deciduous tree up to 9 m tall and 1 m in girth. Bark is thick and rough. Branches are terete, 2.5 cm thick, with paws of sharp stipular spines arising from spirally-arranged tubercles. Alternately arranged leaves are stalkless or nearly so. Leaf-blades obovate-spoon-shaped to inverted- lanceshaped, 10-25 x 3-8 cm, rounded at the tip, tapered to the base, lateral nerves 6-8 pairs, obscure, thick, fleshy, with the midrib prominent beneath. Stipules are spiny, 5 mm long, paired on each spine- shield. Cyathia arise in stalked cymes of 3 each, in leaf axils, towards the tips of the branches, reddish. Stalks are 1 cm long. Glands are transversely oblong, yellowish. Fruits is triradiate, the lobes laterally compressed, 6 x 13 mm, smooth, glabrous, exsert on a pedicel, 1 cm long. Styles is stout, united to above the middle, 2 mm long. Seeds are ovoid- quadrangular, 4 mm long, smooth.

Identification credit: Gurcharan Singh
Photographed near Alibag, Maharashtra.
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