| Euphorbia hirta L., it ia an annual herb up to 15-50 cm high, hispid with long often yellowish crisped hairs. Stems many, usually terete, procumbent or ascending; Leaves simple, opposite, 2 – 4 x 1 – 1.4 cm, elliptic, lanceolate or obovate-lanceolate, acute or subacute, serrate or dentate, dark green above, pale beneath, base usually unequal obliquely rounded, stipules 1 – 2 mm, membranous, lanceolate – subulate, ciliate. Flowers unisexual, small, numerous and crowded together in dense terminal and axillary capitate cymes about 1 cm in diameter, involucre campanulate, ca. 1 × 1 mm, pilose, marginal lobes 5, triangular-ovate, glands 4, red, circular, oblong, or reniform, appendages white to reddish, narrowly elliptic to obdeltoid, to 0.3 × 0.2 mm, margin entire to slightly undulate. Male flowers 4 – 5, anthers red. Female flower, pedicel short, exserted from involucre, ovary 3-angular, sparsely pilose. styles 2, free, stigma slightly 2-lobed. Capsule 3-angular, 1-1.5 × 1-1.5 mm, smooth, shortly pilose, fruiting peduncle to 1.5 mm. Seeds narrowly ovoid, tetragonal, 0.7-0.9 × 0.4-0.5 mm, pink-red, sides transversely furrowed. caruncle absent. Life Form: Th, Flowering in: Jul-Nov, Vern:———, Phytochoria: Pan.Tr, The native range of this species is Tropical & Subtropical America. Notes: Introduced in Libya?????, medicinal plant, weed of cultivation, roadside and waste places.
For more information: https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:101651-2, https://www.ipni.org/n/101651-2, https://www.worldfloraonline.org/taxon/wfo-0000962575, https://www.gbif.org/species/3068937, https://africanplantdatabase.ch/en/nomen/specie/105764/euphorbia-hirta-l, https://www.cabidigitallibrary.org/doi/10.1079/cabicompendium.21355., https://flora.org.il/en/plants/EUPHIR/, https://tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Euphorbia+hirta, https://apps.lucidcentral.org/rainforest/text/entities/euphorbia_hirta.htm, https://ast.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphorbia_hirta |
| Distribution in Libya | |
| Al-Jafarah Plain | Marmarica Plateau |
| Tripoli 1992 | Tobruk (Gabes region) 2023 |
| Bibliographic references: | |
| First: Encyclopedia Flora of Libyan: | |
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| Second: Researches and PhD theses, master theses, Sorted by Newest: | pdf files |
| Mahklouf, M.H., & Al-Shaari, M.S. (2023) The first record of Euphorbia hirta L. (Euphorbiaceae) in the flora of Libya. Scientific Reports in Life Sciences 4 (4): 72-81. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mohammed-Mahklouf, https://zenodo.org/records/10542604 | The first record of Euphorbia hirta L. 2023 |
| El-Mokasabi, F.M. (2017) Studies on the Flora of Libya. Cont ROL, Research article I Botany l Version 1. https://dx.doi.org | Studies on the Flora of Libya 2017 |
| Sherif A & Ben-Othman A. (1992) Checklist and Analysis of El-Naser Forest Flora. Bulletin, Nat Herb, Tripoli University, Libya. 1992; 3: 9-20. |
