Euphorbia punicea

The Jamaican poinsetta is in the euphorbia or Euphorbiaceae family and is native to Jamaica, the Bahamas, Cuba and Virgin Island. It grows as a bush or tree 3–5 meters tall, and sometimes much taller.

This plant is relative of the common Christmas Poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima).

• Leaves are glaucous, oblong, medium green to blue-green, leathery, waxy, caudate point, no petiole, in a rosette-like arrangement at the stem’s apex.
• Flowers are small insignificant 6 mm long, spurge-type golden yellow, surrounded by a very showy crown of flashy-red petal-like bracts, looking like larger flowers from a distance. This “false flower” is in fact described as a cyathium surrounded by large, colorful bracts.
• Fruit is an ovoid capsule 1.2–2.2 cm long, containing seeds, which when ripe, are expelled and thrown at a great distance.
• Breaking a twig or leaf releases a milky latex sap which can be a skin irritant.