BOTANY WITH BASICS OF HYDROBOTANY (AQUATIC PLANTS OF UKRAINE) - B.Ye. Yakubenko - 2011

X. SEED PLANTS

Spurge Family (Euphorbiaceae)

Trees, shrubs, and herbs containing a sticky milky latex. Leaves simple, alternate, often with stipules that are sometimes modified into glands. Flowers small, inconspicuous, mostly unisexual (pistillate and staminate), gathered into complex inflorescences (umbelliform, paniculate, spiciform) composed of elementary inflorescences of original Structure—cyathia—which superficially resemble a single flower. Perianth absent or calyx-like, more rarely double; stamens five, numerous, or only one. Pistil consisting of three carpels with a three-celled superior Ovary on a long stipe. Fruit a three-celled capsule that splits into three nutlets upon ripening; more rarely a berry or drupe.

This is a large, predominantly tropical and partly extratropical family comprising about 300 genera and 7,500 species. In the flora of Ukraine, it is represented by six genera and over 60 species.

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Fig. 128. Marsh spurge

Marsh spurge (Euphorbia palustris L.). A perennial herbaceous plant, entirely glabrous, glaucous, sometimes reddish, 50150 cm tall; uliginophyte, entomophile, barochor (Fig. 128). ROOT multi-headed. Stem erect, tubular, branched, with numerous sterile branchlets; diameter at the base up to 15 mm. Stem leaves mostly elliptic, 211 cm long; leaves on sterile branchlets linear-lanceolate, narrowed at the base into a short petiole, acute or obtuse, entire, minutely serrulate only at the apex.

Inflorescence a pleiochasium having five to eight primary rays. Flowers without a perianth, grouped in umbelliform inflorescences consisting of several staminate flowers and one pistillate flower. Flowers surrounded by rather large, yellow-green, oval bracts. Flower formula: staminate - ♂ A₁; pistillate - ♀ G₍₃₎. Blooms in May–June. Fruit a trigone nutlet, compressed-globose, three-sulcate. Propagated by seeds and vegetatively.

Used in folk medicine. For therapeutic purposes, the herb (stems, leaves, flowers), milky latex, roots, and seeds are utilized. The plant contains organic acids and their derivatives, Tannins, Higher Fatty acids, organic acids (tartaric, citric, malic, succinic, malic, forbic, phenolcarboxylic, gallic), catechins (robidanol, robidanol gallate), Flavonoids (quercetin, kaempferol, myricetin, isomyricetin, stenoside, hyperoside). Alkaloids, caoutchouc, and various resins have been found in the milky latex. The seeds contain fatty oils and higher fatty acids (elenmargaric, ricinoleic, tiglic). In small quantities, the herbal infusion is taken for gastric catarrh and as a laxative, emetic, and anthelmintic agent. The infusion, as well as fresh or diluted dry milky latex, is used externally as a cosmetic remedy to remove freckles and facial blemishes, corns, and warts.

The plant serves as food for leaf beetles and beavers.

Grows in floodplain meadows, marshes, ravine thalwegs, and alder forests throughout Ukraine, except for the high-altitude Regions of the Carpathians and Crimea, and is extremely common on the Left Bank.