英德尔大戟 ying de er da ji

Euphorbia pygmaea Fischer & C. A. Meyer ex Boissier.

Herbs, annual, (5-)10-20(-25) cm tall, glaucous. Root fibrous, thin and undivided, up to 15 cm × 1.5-2 mm. Stems single, thin and slender, half as long as plant, usually purplish toward base, light gray or gray-brown, glabrous. Stem-leaves alternate, deciduous; stipules absent; petiole absent; leaf blade linear-lanceolate, 1-2 × (0.05-)0.1-0.2 cm, base attenuate, margin entire, apex acuminate to often obtuse. Inflorescence a large terminal pseudumbel; primary involucral leaves 2 or 3, similar to normal leaves but larger and persistent; cyathophylls 2, same as normal leaves, to 2.7 cm. Cyathium sessile; involucre narrowly campanulate, ca. 1.5 × (0.7-)1-1.5 mm, lobes ovate, lacerate; glabrous; glands 4, crescent-shaped, 2-horned, horns short. Male flowers many, not exserted from involucre. Female flower: ovary pedicel ca. 3 mm, exserted from cup; ovary smooth, glabrous; styles free; style arms 2-lobed. Capsule ovoid-globose, 2-3(-3.5) × 2-3 mm, 3-furrowed, almost smooth, very faintly reticulate, glabrous. Seeds 6-sided-cylindric, 1.2-1.5 × ca. 1 mm, ash-gray, transversely rugose; caruncle scalelike, peltate, obviously stipitate. Fl. and fr. Apr-Jun.

Fields, steppes. N Xinjiang [Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan].

Euphorbia inderiensis is rather similar to E. consanguinea Schrenk (in Fischer & C. A. Meyer, Enum. Pl. Nov. 1: 88. 1841), which was described from close to the Xinjiang border and has been recorded in traditional Chinese medicine in Xinjiang. It differs by the absence of a caruncle on the seed.