Common Name

Caustic Weed; Flat Spurge, Caustic Creeper, Creeping Caustic, Mat-spurge; Milkweed

Family

Euphorbiaceae

Notes

Annual or short lived perennial forb, prostrate to ascending, stems mostly to 0.2m long.. Leaves opposite each other, 0.2-1cm long, 1.5-5mm wide, flat, hairless, edges entire or minutely toothed near the tip. Male and female flowers on the same plant. Flowers small, green to red with pink or white, with 0 petals, in small heads that look like a single flower, each head composed of several male flowers surrounding 1 female flower, at the bases of the leaves. Chamaesyce drummondii in NSW.

Differs from Euphorbia dallachyana in that there is no appendage at the base of the fruiting body.

Description and photo in G.M. Cunningham, WE Mulham, PL Milthorpe and J H Leigh (1981 and later printings) Plants of Western New South Wales pages 455-456

PlantNET description (as Chamaesyce drummondii): http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Chamaesyce~drummondii