Euphorbia plumerioides (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Euphorbia plumerioides Teijsm. ex Hassk.

Protologue: Hort. bogor. descr. 1: 29 (1858).

• Papua New Guinea: noti (Koheno, North Solomons Province), Simbu (Anji, Enga), temp (Mt Hagen, Western Highlands).

Probably native to the Moluccas and New Guinea, but now cultivated and locally naturalized in Java, the Lesser Sunda Islands, the Philippines (Gola Island), the Moluccas and New Guinea.

In Papua New Guinea, the latex is mixed with water and taken to induce vomiting in cases of poisoning or sickness due to sorcery. It is also used as a purgative, vermifuge and fish poison. E. plumerioides is often planted as an ornamental on cemeteries and as a hedge.

• An unarmed shrub up to 2.5 m tall, twigs thick, terete, glabrous.
• Leaves semipersistent, alternate, crowded towards the twig apices, almost sessile, narrowly lanceolate to obovate-lanceolate, 5-14 cm × 1.2-3.5 cm, gradually narrowed at base, apex obtuse with a long mucro, glabrous, pale glaucous below, older ones red.
• Inflorescence terminal, umbelliform, bracts ovate.
• Cyathia with sordidly red involucres and 5 elliptical to orbicular, green or sometimes red-margined glands, anthers yellow.
• Capsule 3-lobed, glabrous.

E. plumerioides is very variable and has been subdivided into 4 varieties mainly based on leaf characters. It is found on littoral cliffs.

• 97.Backer, C.A. & Bakhuizen van den Brink Jr, R.C., 1963-1968. Flora of Java. 3 volumes. Noordhoff, Groningen, the Netherlands. Vol. 1 (1963) 647 pp., Vol. 2 (1965) 641 pp., Vol. 3 (1968) 761 pp.
• 597.Holdsworth, D.K., 1977. Medicinal plants of Papua New Guinea. Technical Paper No 175. South Pacific Commission, Noumea, New Caledonia. 123 pp.
• 768.Koorders, S.H. & Valeton, T., 1894-1915. Bijdrage tot de kennis der boomsoorten van Java [Contribution to the knowledge of the tree species of Java]. 13 parts. G. Kolff & Co., Batavia, Dutch East Indies, 's Gravenhage, the Netherlands.
• 1126.Perry, L.M., 1980. Medicinal plants of East and Southeast Asia. Attributed properties and uses. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States & London, United Kingdom. 620 pp.
• 1183.Radcliffe Smith, A., 1980. Euphorbia L. In: Airy Shaw, H.K. The Euphorbiaceae of New Guinea. Kew Bulletin Additional Series VIII. Her Majesty's Stationary Office, London, United Kingdom. pp. 81-88.
• 1185.Radcliffe Smith, A., 1981. Euphorbia L. In: Airy Shaw, H.K. An alphabetical enumeration of the Euphorbiaceae of the Philippine Islands. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom. pp. 24-26.
• 1186.Radcliffe Smith, A., 1982. Euphorbia L. In: Airy Shaw, H. K. The Euphorbiaceae of Central Malesia. Kew Bulletin 37: 18-20.

• Euphorbia (Medicinal plants)

• Nguyen Nghia Thin & M.S.M. Sosef