''Euphorbia antiquorum'', known as antique spurge and "Euphorbia of the Ancients", is a species of
succulent plant
In botany, succulent plants, also known as succulents, are plants with parts that are thickened, fleshy, and engorged, usually to retain water in arid climates or soil conditions. The word ''succulent'' comes from the Latin word ''sucus'', meanin ...
in the family
Euphorbiaceae
Euphorbiaceae (), the spurge family, is a large family of flowering plants. In English, they are also commonly called euphorbias, which is also the name of Euphorbia, the type genus of the family. Most spurges, such as ''Euphorbia paralias'', ar ...
. It is widespread throughout peninsular India, but its wild origin is obscure. Escaped or naturalized and widely cultivated in neighbouring regions, such as Burma, China, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Thailand, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam, and in many tropical zones worldwide.
The juice of this plant is a potent ingredient for a mixture of wall plaster, according to the Samarāṅgaṇa Sūtradhāra, which is a Sanskrit treatise dealing with Śilpaśāstra (Hindu science of art and construction).
This species is the
type species
In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...
of the genus ''Euphorbia''.
As most other succulent members of the genus ''Euphorbia'', its trade is regulated under Appendix II of
CITES.
See also
* ''
Euphorbia
''Euphorbia'' is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants, commonly called spurge, in the family (biology), family Euphorbiaceae.
Euphorbias range from tiny annual plants to large and long-lived trees, with perhaps the tallest being ''Eu ...
''
*
Succulent euphorbias
References
External links
*
antiquorum
Flora of Asia
antiquorum
Plants described in 1753
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus
{{Euphorbia-stub