Euphorbia lactea f. monstrose

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Kingdom	Plantae	Plants, but not fungi, lichens, or algae
Subkingdom	Tracheobionta	Vascular plants—plants with a “circulatory system” for delivering water and nutrients
Division	Magnoliophyta	Flowering plants, also known as angiosperms
Class	Magnoliopsida	Dicotyledons—plants with two initial seed leaves
Subclass	Rosidae	Roses, legumes, proteas, dogwoods, hydrangeas, mistletoes, euphorbias, grapes, many more
Order	Malpighiales	A broad group encompassing 16,000 species
Family	Euphorbiaceae	Euphorbia or spurge family
Genus	Euphorbia	An extremely diverse-looking genus of mostly tropical and subtropical succulent plants. For Euphorbus, corpulent Greek physician of Juba II, King of Mauretania. Literally, “euphorbia” means “well-fed”
Species	lactea	Milky or milk-white
f.	monstrose

About plant names...

This is a "monstrose" variety of a cactus-like Euphorbia that is native to Asia, especially India. If "monstrose" sounds like a horrifying, twisted mutation, that's exactly what it is. Well, except that it occurs naturally, and produces growth that many people find appealing. Plants normally have growth points—locations with actively dividing cells where new growth occurs—typically at the ends of branches. But if the growth points occur randomly all over the plant surface, new growth is disorderly, producing rather odd results called monstrose forms. (There are also cristate (crested) forms, where growth occurs in a line, producing fanlike or crested shapes, and the normal form.)

Identification: Plants are shrubs, to 6½' (2 m) tall, creating irregular, folded forms with reddish edges that have inconspicuous, nearly invisible leaves.

Edibility: Poisonous Skull & Crossbones Like other euphorbias, these contain a poisonous milky latex. They can cause nausea and vomiting if eaten, severe eye irritation and temporary blindness, and dermatitis.

Online References:

Webshots

CACTUSPEDIA (Euphorbia lactea)

Wikipedia (Euphorbia lactea)

Top Tropicals (Euphorbia lactea f. cristata (crested form))

Plants.ces.ncsu.edu (Euphorbia lactea)

The USDA Plants Database (Euphorbia lactea)

Www.botanical-dermatology-database.info (Euphorbia lactea)

HEAR: the Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk project (Euphorbia lactea)

Euphorbia lactea f. monstrose description by Thomas H. Kent, last updated 25 May 2020.

The label says Euphorbia monstrosus, but I think this is the monstose form of E. lactea · 4/6/2011 · Howard Peters Rawlings Conservatory & Botanic Gardens, Druid Hill Park, Baltimore, Maryland
≈ 24 × 20" (59 × 50 cm) ID is uncertain

7/15/2011 · Susan and Raimond’s

12/3/2011 · Susan and Raimond’s, Phoenix, Maryland
≈ 5 × 3½" (13 × 9.2 cm)