Japanese name: ホルトソウ Scientific name:Euphorbia lathyris
[Overview]
An annual or biennial 1–1.5 m tall.
White milky sap comes out when the stems or leaves are damaged.
The whole plant is covered with a white bloom.
The stem is cylindrical and erect, bluish green and often tinged with red.
Leaves are simple and decussate (opposite, each pair at right angles to the next), linear to lanceolate, 5–15 cm long and 1–2.5 cm wide, with entire margins and a conspicuous greenish-white midrib.
There are no leaf stalks.
Flowering branches arise at the stem tips and bear triangular-ovate bracts, from the center of which cup-shaped inflorescences emerge.
The bracts are often tinged with yellow.
The flowers have no petals.
The fruit is a spherical, three-ridged capsule 1–1.5 cm in diameter.
The seeds have a caruncle.
[Uses]
Though a poisonous plant, the seeds and the milky sap from the stems are used medicinally.
The seed oil is used for industrial purposes.
[Cultivation]
Propagate from seed.
It also spreads readily from self-sown seed.
It prefers a well-drained soil in sun to partial shade.
Rainfall is sufficient for watering.
If fertilizer is applied at planting, no further fertilizing is particularly necessary.
There are no particular pests or diseases.
