spurge

/spərdʒ/

Other forms: spurges

Definitions of spurge

1. noun

   any of numerous plants of the genus Euphorbia; usually having milky often poisonous juice
   types:

   Euphorbia lathyris, caper spurge, mole plant, myrtle spurge

   poisonous Old World spurge; adventive in America; seeds yield a purgative oil

   Euphorbia helioscopia, devil's milk, sun spurge, wartweed, wartwort

   not unattractive European weed whose flowers turn toward the sun

   Euphorbia peplus, devil's milk, petty spurge

   an Old World spurge introduced as a weed in the eastern United States

   Euphorbia caput-medusae, Euphorbia medusae, medusa's head

   African dwarf succulent perennial shrub with numerous slender drooping branches

   Euphorbia corollata, flowering spurge, tramp's spurge, wild spurge

   common perennial United States spurge having showy white petallike bracts

   Euphorbia marginata, ghost weed, snow-in-summer, snow-on-the-mountain

   annual spurge of western United States having showy white-bracted flower clusters and very poisonous milk

   Euphorbia cyparissias, cypress spurge

   Old World perennial having foliage resembling cypress; naturalized as a weed in the United States

   Euphorbia esula, leafy spurge, wolf's milk

   tall European perennial naturalized and troublesome as a weed in eastern North America

   Euphorbia hirsuta, hairy spurge

   much-branched hirsute weed native to northeastern North America

   Christmas flower, Christmas star, Euphorbia pulcherrima, Mexican flameleaf, lobster plant, painted leaf, poinsettia

   tropical American plant having poisonous milk and showy tapering usually scarlet petallike leaves surrounding small yellow flowers

   Euphorbia heterophylla, Japanese poinsettia, mole plant, paint leaf

   showy poinsettia found from the southern United States to Peru

   Euphorbia cyathophora, Mexican fire plant, fire-on-the-mountain, painted leaf

   poinsettia of United States and eastern Mexico; often confused with Euphorbia heterophylla

   Euphorbia amygdaloides, wood spurge

   European perennial herb with greenish yellow terminal flower clusters

   Euphorbia antisyphilitica, candelilla

   wax-coated shrub of northern Mexico and southwestern United States

   Euphorbia exigua, dwarf spurge

   European erect or depressed annual weedy spurge adventive in northeastern United States

   Euphorbia fulgens, scarlet plume

   Mexican shrub often cultivated for its scarlet-bracted flowers

   Euphorbia ingens, cactus euphorbia, naboom

   small tree of dry open parts of southern Africa having erect angled branches suggesting candelabra

   Christ plant, Christ thorn, Euphorbia milii, crown of thorns

   somewhat climbing bushy spurge of Madagascar having long woody spiny stems with few leaves and flowers with scarlet bracts

   Euphorbia dentata, toothed spurge

   an annual weed of northeastern North America with dentate leaves

   type of:

   bush, shrub

   a low woody perennial plant usually having several major stems