Euphorbia rothiana

Euphorbia rothiana Spreng., Syst. Veg. 3: 796 1826. (Syn: Euphorbia divergens Klotzsch [Illegitimate]; Euphorbia glauca Roxb. [Illegitimate]; Euphorbia javanica Jungh.; Euphorbia laeta B.Heyne ex Roth [Illegitimate]; Euphorbia lanceolaria Wall. [Invalid]; Euphorbia oreophila Miq.; Euphorbia oreophila var. pubescens Boiss.; Euphorbia oreophila var. wightiana (Boiss.) Boiss.; Euphorbia rothiana var. pubescens (Boiss.) Oudejans; Euphorbia rothiana var. wightiana (Boiss.) Oudejans; Euphorbia socialis Zoll. [Illegitimate]; Euphorbia wightiana Boiss.; Tithymalus divergens Klotzsch; Tithymalus rothianus (Spreng.) Klotzsch & Garcke; Tithymalus thwaitesii Klotzsch & Garcke);
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yoo-FOR-bee-uh — named for Euphorbus, Greek physician to Juba II … Dave’s Botanary
roth-ee-AY-nuh — named for Dr A W Roth, a German botanist …
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commonly known as: common hill spurge • Marathi: दुधी dudhi
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Native to: peninsular India, Sri Lanka
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Euphorbia rothiana:
Euphorbia rothiana (Syn E. laeta)
Euphorbiaceae family
Sept`11
Kaas, Maharashtra
FB Link

Yes … I have seen this plant on Mahabaleshwar too.


Thanks …, In that case, if my understanding goes right, it is species of high altitude grasslands.



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Initially looks like green flowers, though the flowers are tiny yellow star like. The plant contains milky juice.
On 22nd sept 2012 Kas, Maharastra.


 

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Kas Week :: DV :: 19 OCT 07 – 1220 :: Euphorbia rothiana: 
Kas plateauabout 4000 ft asl

… one of the 39 World Heritage sites in the Western Ghats of India
19 OCT 07
Euphorbia rothiana Spreng. … (family: Euphorbiaceae)
yoo-FOR-bee-uh — named for Euphorbus, Greek physician to Juba II … Dave’s Botanary
roth-ee-AY-nuh — named for Dr A W Roth, a German botanist …
commonly known as: common hill spurge • Marathi: दुधी dudhi
Native to: peninsular India, Sri Lanka
References: Flowers of IndiaFlowers of Sahyadri by Shrikant Ingalhalikar

BSI Flora of Maharashtra and FOS mentions this as Euphorbia laeta.
Family : Euphorbiaceae.
Syn. Euphorbia rothiana


True … Until BSI flora is referred in its book form, such differences will be observed. Hopefully, a website would come up soon.
Shrikant ji’s new edition of FOS reflects E. rothiana, though E. laeta seems to have inadvertently got retained in Flowers of Kas.
Made changes in my flickr notes during the routine of uploads.


Euphorbia laeta B Heyne ex Roth. (1821) can’t be the correct name for two reasons

1. It is an illegitimate name being a later homonym of E. laeta Aiton (1789), a totally different species now considered as synonym of Euphorbia dendroides L.
This is another example of confusions we land into when not citing the authors. I found numerous entries on the web of this plant, with two as synonyms and none citing the authority.
E. rothiana Spreng should thus be taken as correct name and Euphorbia laeta B. Heyne ex Roth as synonym.

Interesting discussion…
1: is this native of the mediterranean islands? since the website link is from univ in the tiny island…
2: the pictures of their garden’s samples seem several years old…
do they grow that big in KAS or in the western ghats… ie comfortable for a few years?
or do they get eaten by goats etc and are seen small specimen only?
or are they newly naturalized “weeds” ???


Responding to the query: (1) is this native of the mediterranean islands?
No. This is native of peninsular India and Sri Lanka.


I think you got confused. E. dendroides is a different species not found in India. It shares with E. rothiana of Kas region, the synonyms which are homonyms.


NO I AM NOT CONFUSED
I was looking at the plants in the link you gave above .. its from a university on the Mediterranean islands off coast of Spain
my question was about this E. laeta… that website shows plants older than any I have seen from any indian book or site…hence the questions…
if it is our native.. how come we / indians dont have pictures of older plants ????
that’s what I as asking… or are the spaniards more careful of their plants?


There are two different plants:
E. laeta Heynes ex Roth (1821)
E. laeta Aiton (1789)
Since two different species are given the same name they are homonyms, former being later homonym (junior homonym) is rejected irrespective of whether E. laeta Aiton (earlier homonym or senior homonym) is accepted name or not. E. laeta Aiton happens to be a synonym of E. dendroides L., a fact that has come to light relatively recently and this old website does not give this synonym. My purpose of the link was only to show how different this plant looks. And it does not grow in India.
The Indian plant was described in Flora of British India as E. rothiana Spreng with E. laeta Heynes ex Roth as synonym. Since latter has earlier date of publication, so several recent books treated E. laeta Heynes ex Roth as correct name and E. rothiana a synonym, but the decision had to be reversed once it was known that it is a later homonym.



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euphorbia rothiana, mahabeleshwar:
euphorbia rothiana, last week at mahabeleshwar


looking very similar to E. lathyris uploaded by me from kashmir, except for alternate leaves and more pointed gland horn tips here.



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KAS Week:: ( Euphorbia laeta – 10/10/2012-NJ):
Euphorbia laeta (Dudhi– Marathi)


Correct name should be E. rothiana- efi thread

KAS Week::(Euphorbia dracunculoides – 11/10/2012-NJ): Euphorbia dracunculoides – (Khachar Dudhi- Marathi)


E. dracunculoides I hope is a much different plant with linear leaves. This should be E. rothiana


This is E. laeta.


Euphorbia laeta can’t be the correct name as explained by me earlier. efi thread


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Euphorbiaceae for identification 071212MK03:
Please help me to identify this weed herb found near a garbage in Ooty town. The leaves are about 8 cm longer. Is this any Euphorbia species?

Place: Ooty Town, Nilgiris, TN
Date: 23 February 2012
Alt.: 2200 m asl

May be Euphorbia rothiana


Yes, This is Euphorbia rothiana Spreng. distributed in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu in open grasslands and forest edges at 1000 – 2500 m altitude.



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Euphorbiaceae for identification 071212MK03:

Please help me to identify this weed herb found near a garbage in Ooty town. The leaves are about 8 cm longer. Is this any Euphorbia species?
Place: Ooty Town, Nilgiris, TN
Date: 23 February 2012

Alt.: 2200 m asl


 

May be Euphorbia rothiana


Yes, This is Euphorbia rothiana Spreng. distributed in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu in open grasslands and forest edges at 1000 – 2500 m altitude.



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Euphorbiaceae fortnight :: Euphorbia rothiana :: mm1 : Attachments (4).  4 posts by 3 authors.
Euphorbia rothiana,
Mahabaleshwar.


You are right.



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Euphorbiaceae Fortnight : Euphorbia laeta : Mahabaleashwar : 071113 : AK-33: Attachments (2). 3 posts by 2 authors.
Euphorbia laeta from Mahabaleshwar.
Sorry for the bad pictures due to low light.


This species is Euphorbia rothiana Spreng. E. laeta Heyne ex Roth is one of its synonym.



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Euphorbiaceae Fortnight :: Euphorbia for ID :: MK010 : Attachments (5). 2 posts by 2 authors.

Please help me in identifying this Euphorbia herb.
Height: up to 1 metre
Leaf: up to 10 cm long
Date: 16 Aug 2013
Place: Doddabetta, Nilgiris, TN
Alt.: 2500 m asl

This species is Euphorbia rothiana Spreng., common in Nilgiris and other hilly areas of Pen. India, from 1000 – 2500 m alt.



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Herb, around 75cm in height.
Bot. name: Euphorbia rothiana
Family: Euphorbiaceae
Local name: Dudhi,


I think this is Euphorbia rothiana Spreng.



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Euphorbiaceae fortnight::Euphorbia dracunculoides (NSJ-07) : Attachments (2).  3 posts by 3 authors.
Euphorbia dracunculoides?? from Kas


Not E. dracunculoides
I hope it is E. rothiana


This is most probably E. rothiana Spreng. Anyway it is definitely not E. dracunculoides Lam.



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Euphorbiaceae fortnight::Euphorbia laeta (NSJ-06) : Attachments (2).  3 posts by 3 authors.
Euphorbia laeta from Kas.

E. rothiana is the correct name


This is Euphorbia rothiana Spreng. (syn.: E. laeta B.Heyne ex Roth)



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EUPHORBIACEAE FORTNIGHT :: Euphorbia rothiana Mahabaleshwar :: SMP 20 : 4 posts by 4 authors.
Euphorbia rothiana syn. Euphorbia laeta


This seems to be Euphorbia rothiana Spreng. (Syn. E. laeta B.Heyne ex Roth)


As usual, superb pics, thanks ….



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Euphorbia rothiana Spreng. SN June13 : 2 posts by 2 authors. Attachments (3).
Euphorbia rothiana Spreng, a weed near tea estate and shola from coonor area of Nilgiri, Tamilnadu at an altitude of 1500m
637 ID wild plant Euphorbiaceae: 11 high res. images.
Please ID wild plant,

Location: bloomed at Kolukkumalai Munnar Idukki Kerala INDIA
Altitude: 7200fsl
Flower date: 11OCT2024, 08.30am
Habitat: wild moisture rocky evergreen misty sloppy alpine 
Plant habit: medium shrub, erect branches, weak cylindrical stem 01 inch base circumference, smooth green bark, latex, perennial
Height: 01.5 meters
Leaves: dicot alternate elongated acute smooth leathery size upto: 09×2cm
Flower: axillary unisexual buds in terminals with bracts, non fragrant
Fruit: capsule green into brown lobate
Seed:
Camera: CANON EOS1500D +FL10x


Euphorbia esula, two-horned crescent shaped glands.


POWO, GBIF and CoL have shown no distribution for India,  WP has mentioned  JK as
introduced sp., efi has two entries from JK, FoI has mentioned as found to be native.
https://www.researchgate.net/Euphorbia_esula_a_new_record_for_kashmir
So it is a new distribution for south India ??


I think it is Euphorbia rothiana as per images at
https://efloraofindia.com/efi/euphorbia-rothiana/
https://indiaflora-ces.iisc.ac.in/FloraPeninsular/herbsheet.php?id=3833&cat=7


I guess you are right … https://indiaflora-ces.iisc.ac.in/herbsheet.php?id=4819&cat=13


Yes, it is Euphorbia rothiana, thank you very much for ID my plant



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References:
Updated on March 23, 2025

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