– Euphorbia aureoviridiflora (2014)

By Martin Schweig (August 2014)

This June, I was the lucky recipient of the show-worthy plant attendance prize at the monthly club meeting. Although I had promised myself that I was not going to add any more plants to my collection, I seemed to have rapidly forgotten that promise.

The plant to which I succumbed is a euphorbia from Madagascar named Euphorbia aueroviridiflora. Its habitat is the northern rocky areas of the island, and the plant is red listed as vulnerable. It seems that because a large part of the plant’s growing area is outside the northern nature preserves, it suffers from loss of habitat due to land clearing for agricultural use and probably overcollecting by the horticulture trade.

E. aueroviridiflora has green, paddle-shaped leaves and five-sided stems. The stems are ornamented by the scars from previously shed leaves, and in time, these scars merge into a light-colored brown bark. The inflorescence are yellow and beaklike in shape.

I repotted the plant and hope that by next year, it will be prospering and ready for the big club show.