Euphorbia marginata (commonly known as snow-on-the-mountain, smoke-on-the-prairie, variegated spurge, or whitemargined spurge) is a small annual in the spurge family.

Euphorbia marginata
Snow-on-the-mountain, Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge

Secure  (NatureServe)[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Malpighiales
Family: Euphorbiaceae
Genus: Euphorbia
Species:
E. marginata
Binomial name
Euphorbia marginata

It is native to parts of temperate North America, from Eastern Canada to the Southwestern United States.[2] It is naturalized throughout much of China.[3]

The type specimen was collected in Rosebud County, Montana from the area of the Yellowstone River by William Clark during the Lewis and Clark Expedition.[4][5]

Description

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Euphorbia marginata

Snow-on-the-mountain has grey-green leaves along branches and smaller leaves (bracts or cyathophylls) in terminal whorls with edges trimmed with wide white bands, creating, together with the white flowers, the appearance that gives the plant its common names.

Snow-on-the-mountain has also been found to emit large quantities of sulfur gas, mainly in the form of dimethyl sulfide (DMS).[6]

References

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  1. ^ NatureServe (2024). "Euphorbia marginata". Arlington, Virginia. Retrieved 10 April 2024.
  2. ^ NRCS. "Euphorbia marginata". PLANTS Database. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Retrieved 2012-09-29.
  3. ^ Ma, Jin-shuang; Gilbert, Michael G. "Euphorbia marginata". Flora of China. Vol. 11 – via eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.
  4. ^ International Plant Names Index (2008), The International Plant Names Index, archived from the original on 2015-08-13, retrieved 2008-12-30
  5. ^ Lewis, Meriwether; Clark, William (1983), Moulton, Gary E. (ed.), The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Volume 12: Herbarium of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, University of Nebraska Press, p. 359, ISBN 978-0-8032-2931-0
  6. ^ Kanda, Ken-ichi; Tsuruta, Haruo (1995-06-01). "Emissions of sulfur gases from various types of terrestrial higher plants". Soil Science and Plant Nutrition. 41 (2): 321–328. Bibcode:1995SSPN...41..321K. doi:10.1080/00380768.1995.10419589. ISSN 0038-0768.
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