Compilation
Euphorbia pentagona

a succulent spiny shrub, 4–9 ft. high, “forming a dense rounded bush” (Wood), unisexual, with the stems and branches bearing clusters or whorls of branches at intervals 4–18 in. apart, all erect and somewhat closely packed, 2/3–1 1/4 in. thick or perhaps thicker when old, usually 5–6- (occasionally 4- or 7-) angled, glabrous, green, becoming grey; angles acute, 1–2 lin. prominent, very slightly toothed or nearly even, with broad triangular grooves between them, each marked with an impressed line down the centre; leaves rudimentary, spreading, 1–2 or under cultivation up to 3 1/2 lin. long, 1/2 lin. broad, linear or linear-lanceolate, acute, slightly channelled down the face, glabrous, withering and persisting for a time (at least under cultivation), then deciduous; spines (modified peduncles) solitary, regularly scattered along the angles or sometimes few or nearly or quite absent, 3–7 (rarely up to 10) lin. long, bearing 2–3 minute alternate scale-leaves, glabrous, light brown; peduncles solitary, clustered at the apex of the branches, 2–6 lin. long, with 2–3 minute alternate bracts on the lower part, and a whorl of 3 at its apex, and developing 1–3 involucres, very minutely puberulous or perhaps sometimes glabrous, light brown, ultimately persistent and transformed into spines; bracts under the involucre spreading, 1–1 3/4 lin. long, 2/3–1 lin. broad, oblong or oblong-obovate, obtuse or rounded at the apex, minutely puberulous on the upper side, glabrous on the back, dull purple; involucre (male) 2 lin. in diam., cup-shaped, entirely dark dull purple, with 5 glands and 5 subquadrate or transversely oblong minutely ciliate lobes; glands not contiguous 2/3–1 lin. in their greater diam., transversely oblong or elliptic, entire; stamens densely white-pubescent; ovary and capsule not seen. null