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Baseball Cactus

Euphorbia obesa

Also called Gingham Golfball, Living Baseball, Baseball Plant, Fat Milkball, Turkish Temple, Zulu Hut

Baseball Cactus
Photo: Andrew Hankey, CC BY-SA 4.0

Euphorbia obesa is a small, ball-shaped succulent from the arid Karoo of South Africa, prized for its striped, ridged globe form. It needs bright sun, very sparing water and well-draining soil.

Family
Euphorbiaceae (Spurge family)
Grows as
Succulent
Light
Full sun
Water
Water sparingly during the growing season and let the soil dry out fully between waterings; keep nearly dry in winter.
Soil
Fast-draining cactus or succulent mix with added grit or perlite.
Temperature
15–30 °C; protect below 5 °C
How easy
Moderate
Safety
Toxic: The milky latex is toxic and can irritate skin and eyes, and causes severe irritation if it gets in the eyes.
Native range
SC. Cape Prov.
Climate
desert or dry shrubland

About

Euphorbia obesa is a subtropical succulent species of flowering plant in the genus Euphorbia. It comes from the arid Karoo in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is sometimes referred to as the baseball plant.

In the wild it is endangered because of over-collection and poaching, combined with its slow growth, and the fact that the pod contains only two or three seeds. However, it is widely cultivated in botanical gardens.

How to grow it

In cultivation in the UK, Euphorbia obesa has won the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

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 obesa 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.

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