Euphorbia antiquorum

The antique spurge is in the euphorbia or Euphorbiaceae family. It is widespread through India but has naturalized or has been widely cultivated in many tropical zones of the world. It can reach a height of up to 7 m tall.

• Plants have a poisonous, milky, white, latex-like sap with a pungent and lingering odor.
• Older stems are cylindrical, with brownish bark; younger branches are smooth, green, distinctly 3(4)-angled, articulate with the segments 6–30 cm long and 2–5 cm across, drying greenish, with shallow to hardly narrowed sinuses between the spine-shields. Spine-shields are in rows, shallow, 1.5–2 cm apart, spines in pairs, 4–6 mm long, blackish, persistent.
• Leaves are alternate, apically clustered, with small spine shields, pricklelike stipules, spines paired, 2-5 mm long; petiole is very short; leaf blade is obovate or obovate-oblong, 2–5 cm long and 1–2 cm across, base attenuate, margin entire, apex rounded.
• Flower structures are called cyathia; a cyathium is an inflorescence consisting of a cuplike cluster of modified leaves enclosing a female flower and several male flowers, with 3–4 individuals together. They are full of honey and attract bees.
• Seed capsules are 3-lobed, 3.4–4 mm long and 4–5 mm wide, turning deep red on maturity; seeds are nearly globose, 2 mm across, brown-yellow.