Plant Wiki

The open plant encyclopedia

Know any plant.
Grow it well.

Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.

  • 13,000+plants with full pages
  • 365,000+plant species worldwide
  • 220+countries covered

Common in

See all

The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.

What do you want to do?

Popular plants

Browse all plants

See them in 3D

All plants in 3D

Browse plants

Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.

Plant Wiki › Browse plants

Balsam Spurge

Euphorbia balsamifera

Balsam Spurge
Photo: Frank Vincentz, CC BY-SA 3.0

Balsam spurge is a semisucculent shrub or small tree from the Canary Islands, western Morocco and Western Sahara, grown mainly in dry, sunny, well-drained conditions. Its milky sap is irritant and poisonous, so handle with care.

Family
Euphorbiaceae (Spurge family)
Grows as
Succulent
Light
Full sun
Water
Water deeply but infrequently, letting the soil dry out completely between waterings; reduce sharply in winter.
Soil
Fast-draining sandy or gritty cactus-style mix.
Temperature
15–30 °C; protect below 5 °C
How easy
Easy
Safety
Toxic: The milky latex is poisonous and can irritate skin and eyes; it is less caustic than many other Euphorbia species.
Native range
Canary Is., W. Morocco to Western Sahara
Climate
desert or dry shrubland

About

Euphorbia balsamifera (balsam spurge) is a flowering plant in the spurge family Euphorbiaceae. It is distributed in the Canary Islands and the western Sahara. It is the vegetable symbol of the island of Lanzarote. Euphorbia adenensis has been treated as a subspecies of this species.

Where it grows

Euphorbia balsamifera is native to the Canary Islands, western Morocco and Western Sahara.

Uses

Milky latex of Euphorbia balsamifera is poisonous like in other Euphorbia species, but it is not so caustic. In Morocco, it is widely used in dentistry as anesthesia for acute dental pulpitis treatment.

Other Euphorbia plants

Abd Al Kuri Euphorbia · Desert Candle · Greek Spiny Spurge · Euphorbia actinoclada · Miniature Saguaro · Pincushion Euphorbia · Euphorbia alcicornis · Euphorbia alfredii · Euphorbia ambarivatoensis · Euphorbia ambovombensis · African candelabra · Euphorbia ampliphylla

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Euphorbia balsamifera by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

Credits & terms

Identify a plant

Point at a leaf or flower and snap. One plant in frame works best.

Your photo
Starting camera…