Botanical name: Euphorbia nutans    Family: Euphorbiaceae (Castor family)
Synonyms: Chamaesyce nutans, Euphorbia trinervis, Euphorbia preslii

Nodding spurge is an annual herb growing erect with pairs of oblong leaves along its stems. The leaves may be up to 3.5 cm long, oblong to oval oblong, hairy or hairless, and finely toothed, mostly stalkless or very short stalked, prominently asymmetrical sometimes with a shallow but distinct lobe on one side at the base. Flowers are small but distinct, mostly in clusters at the tips of branches, few in the lower leaf axils. A small cup, 3 mm across, holds the male and female flowers in the center. The rim of the cup has 4 white to pink, rounded petal-like appendages, each a thickened gland at the base that is green to red. The male flower anthers are yellow and nearly indistinct. The clump of styles of the single female flower in the center sit atop a round, 3-parted ovary on a short stalk that extends out from the flower center. Female flower develops into a fruit, which is a capsule about 2 mm wide. Nodding spurge is native to much of the United States, Eastern Canada, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and Venezuela. It is naturalized in parts of Europe as well as in the Middle East, and East Asia.

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The flower labeled Nodding Spurge is ...