Euphorbia viminea (Spurred chamaesyce)

Spurred chamaesyce is native to the Galápagos Islands, and apparently found only there. I was surprised to find almost no information at all about this species. It isn’t in any of the three books I have on Galápagos flora.

Plants: Deciduous shrubs have woody, terete, red-brown branches with regularly spaced nodes.

Leaves: Linear, needle-like, opposite, succulent, gray-green, ¼–½″ long ⨉ 1/32″ wide (8–14 ⨉ 1 mm), sometimes with clubbed tips. Leaves produce a white latex when broken.

4/3/2025 · Las Bachas Beach, Santa Cruz, Galápagos Islands, Ecuador · ≈ 4½ × 7″ (12 × 18 cm)

4/3/2025 · Las Bachas Beach, Santa Cruz, Galápagos Islands, Ecuador · ≈ 2½ × 1½″ (6.4 × 4.1 cm)

4/3/2025 · Las Bachas Beach, Santa Cruz, Galápagos Islands, Ecuador · ≈ 9 × 6″ (22 × 15 cm)

4/3/2025 · Las Bachas Beach, Santa Cruz, Galápagos Islands, Ecuador · ≈ 4 × 6″ (10 × 16 cm)

Kingdom	Plantae	Plants, but not fungi, lichens, or algae (from Stearn's Botanical Latin)
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	viminea	From Latin vimen, referring to long, flexible, osier-like (willowy) shoots

About plant names...