The genus is named for Euphorbus (fl. circa 10 BC – AD 20), the Greek physician to the Berber king Juba II (c. 50 BC – AD 23) of Numidia, a country which once existed within modern Tunisia and Algeria. He was the brother of Antonio Musa (vide Musa), physician to Caesar Augustus. The king married Cleopatra Selene, the daughter of Mark Anthony and Cleopatra, and later, Glaphyra, the widow of the son of Herod the Great. The king was interested in plants and, according to Pliny the Elder (Pliny, AD 79), gave it its name in 12 BC. In the 16th century it was known as Tithymalus, but Linnaeus restored the name Euphorbia in 1753. One story is that Euphorbus cured King Juba from a stomach condition with a Euphorbia. The other is that the plant was discovered by the king in the Atlas mountains of Morocco and that, as Euphorbus was a fat man and the plant was fleshy, he thought it an apt name as ‘euphorbus’ in Greek means ‘eu = good’ and ‘phorbe = fodder’. Juba is remembered elsewhere, for he gives his name to the capital of the new country of South Sudan. Euphorbia regis-jubae, discovered on an expedition to the Canary Islands, sponsored by King Juba, also commemorates him.

Used to treat basal cell carcinomas in Australian trial. Source for synthesising Ingenol mebutamate for actinic keratoses.

Toxic due to highly irritant saponins in sap (‘Latex’)

Professor Anthony Dayan, 2022

Africa, Macaronesia, Madeira

Africa, Macaronesia, Canary Is.

Africa, Northeast Tropical Africa, Ethiopia

Africa, Northern Africa, Algeria

Africa, Northern Africa, Egypt

Africa, Northern Africa, Libya

Africa, Northern Africa, Morocco

Africa, Northern Africa, Tunisia

Asia-Temperate, Arabian Peninsula, Gulf States

Asia-Temperate, Arabian Peninsula, Kuwait

Asia-Temperate, Arabian Peninsula, Saudi Arabia

Asia-Temperate, Arabian Peninsula, Yemen

Asia-Temperate, Caucasus, Transcaucasus

Asia-Temperate, China

Asia-Temperate, Eastern Asia, Taiwan

Asia-Temperate, Western Asia, Cyprus

Asia-Temperate, Western Asia, Israel

Asia-Temperate, Western Asia, Lebanon-Syria

Asia-Temperate, Western Asia, Turkey

Asia-Temperate, Western Asia, Iran

Asia-Temperate, Western Asia, Iraq

Asia-Tropical, Indian Subcontinent, India

Asia-Tropical, Indian Subcontinent, Pakistan

Europe, Eastern Europe

Europe, Middle Europe

Europe, Northern Europe

Europe, Northern Europe, Great Britain

Europe, Northern Europe, Ireland

Europe, Southeastern Europe

Europe, Southwestern Europe

Africa, Northeast Tropical Africa, Somalia