''Euphorbia caput-medusae'' ("Medusa's Head") is a plant of the genus ''

Euphorbia ''Euphorbia'' is a very large and diverse genus of flowering plants, commonly called spurge, in the family Euphorbiaceae. "Euphorbia" is sometimes used in ordinary English to collectively refer to all members of Euphorbiaceae (in deference to t ...

'' that occurs in and around

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

Description

This succulent resembles the head of Medusa, with many serpent-like stems arising from a short, central caudex. They sometimes exceed 1 metre in diameter, partly buried in the ground, covered with numerous crowded branches. ''Euphorbia caput-medusae'' was introduced to the Netherlands around 1700 and was one of the early plants described by Linnaeus ('' Species Plantarum'', 1753).

Distribution

This species is primarily coastal, occurring along the western coast of

, southwards to the

Cape Peninsula The Cape Peninsula ( af, Kaapse Skiereiland) is a generally mountainous peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean at the south-western extremity of the African continent. At the southern end of the peninsula are Cape Point and the Cape ...

. It is still common around

where it grows in deep sand or rocky outcrops on the coast. It is particularly common in the

Peninsula Shale Renosterveld Peninsula Shale Renosterveld (PSR) is a unique vegetation type that is found only on the slopes of Signal Hill and Devil's Peak in Cape Town, South Africa. It is critically endangered and exists nowhere else. Habitat This unique type of Renos ...

vegetation of Signal Hill. It also occurs along the south coast of the

Western Cape Province The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

, from

the form previously known as ''"muirii"'' extends along the coast eastwards as far as

Mossel Bay Mossel Bay ( af, Mosselbaai) is a harbour town of about 99,000 people on the Southern Cape (or Garden Route) of South Africa. It is an important tourism and farming region of the Western Cape Province. Mossel Bay lies 400 kilometres east of the ...

.Goldblatt, P. & Manning, J. (2000) ''Cape Plants. A Conspectus of the Cape Flora of South Africa.'' SANBI, Cape Town & Missouri Botanical Garden, St Louis.

References

External links

IPNI.org: listing for ''Euphorbia caput-medusae''
* caput-medusae Endemic flora of South Africa Flora of the Cape Provinces Renosterveld Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{Euphorbia-stub