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Mysterious euphorbia seeds....

During the summer (which was rather succesful for me, houseplant-wise) I grew my Euphorbia plants outside. One, which is tall and has leaves coming out of its stems, flowered and two of the several flowers became fertilized. Now, they're maturing in my sunroom. What do I do now? Is it possible to sow the seeds when they become ready? Do Euphorbia have high mortality rates with seeds? I'll try to post some pics in a couple weeks.

Many thanks,
-Ben
 
Oh, I'm very interested - I wish I could help you. You should look on davesgarden.com and figure out the species. Is it Euphorbia milli? Interesting sprays of flowers that branch from nodes beneath the petals? Thorny, oblong stems with large, oblong tounge-shaped leaves? I love the Euphorbiaceae, they're what got me started collecting plants.
~Joe
 
No, definitely not E. milli. My E. milli flowers for me all the time, though it never makes seed pods. My un-known Euphorbia has small, green, un-attractive flowers. It grows lots of leaves, and the bottom half of its stem has no leaves; they fell off. It isn't like those 4-cornered ones, because this one has many corners, and grows kinda in spirals. The flowers came from little 'nodes' as you called them, and the nodes appear all the time, just w/o flowers coming outta them. They are above the leaves. Each plant has about 7 'ribs' as one might call them, or rows. The leaves grow on the rows. Sorry for my not-so-technical description, but I don't have too good of a cam right now. Tomorrow I can try to take a pic, though it might be blurry, though you will get the basic shape of the plant.

-Ben
 
Here's my unknown Euphorbia (sorry for the quality):

euphorbia1.jpg


euphorbia2.jpg

What do you guys think?


And here's my E. milli:

euphorbia_milli.jpg
 
I've seen that one too... I think E. h-something. You should be able to find it on davesgarden.com or desert-tropicals.com.
~Joe
 
I've found it!!! Euphorbia loricata!!

euphorbia_loricata.jpg


See! Time to make a tag for it!
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smile_n_32.gif
(By the way, thank you seedjar!)
 
Glad to help.
~Joe
 
Now on the matter of seeds. Should I just sow 'em on the parent's preferred soil mix? And keep the seedlings wet? Is there a good chance they'll germinate?
 
I really don't know. I would treat them like I do most mystery seeds; put them in something like the parent's mix with some peat moss added to keep it moist, and maybe some sand. Keep the seeds wet for a while, but water through and don't let it sit in a tray. If the medium starts to grow moss or mold, let it dry and try again later. Euphorbs are used to dry conditions, and the seeds will persist for far longer than you expect; I got a seedling from a 3-year-old Jatropha podagrica (family Euphorbiaceae) seed that I tossed into a mixed pot and forgot about. It wasn't until I consistently overwatered that pot for a few successive weeks that the seed germinated. But this plant is very popular; I see it in stores all the time. I'm sure with a little digging you can turn up some care instructions.
Best luck.
~Joe
 
  • #10
Alright, I'll take your advice. I think I have a book on cati somwhere.....I also wonder if I can get anything for these seeds?
 
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