Euphorbia baioensis

This rare, agressively spiny euphorbia is native to Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. It is somewhat more common in cultivation.

Plants: Grows in sprawling prostrate clumps up to 12″ (30 cm) tall. Each stem is about ¾″ (2 cm) around at the base. Most of the branches are basal. Each stem was 8 to 10 angles (longitudinal ribs). Spines, lots of them, adorn the raised branch edges. Spines occur in pairs (a trait of euphorbias, but not cacti). They are up to ⅜″ (1 cm) long, grey, with reddish tips when young, aging to blackish.

Leaves: Sharply triangular, 1/32 ⨉ 1/32″ (1 ⨉ 0.7 mm), often remaining on the plant and hardening to a minute prickle.

Flowers: Small yellow flowers clustered together in heads. Yellow cyathia are about 1/16 ⨉ ⅛″ (2 ⨉ 3.5 mm), with flowers that are only 1/32 ⨉ 1/32″ (1.5 ⨉ 1.5 mm).

Fruits: Capsules are on ⅛″ (3 mm) pedicels. They are reddish, with three lobes, and 1/16 ⨉ ⅛″ (2.5 ⨉ 4 mm).

4/6/2011 · Howard Peters Rawlings Conservatory & Botanic Gardens, Druid Hill Park, Baltimore, Maryland · ≈ 12 × 8″ (31 × 20 cm)

4/6/2011 · Howard Peters Rawlings Conservatory & Botanic Gardens, Druid Hill Park, Baltimore, Maryland · ≈ 1½ × 1′ (52 × 34 cm)

Kingdom	Plantae	Plants, but not fungi, lichens, or algae (from Stearn's Botanical Latin)
Subkingdom	Tracheobionta	Vascular plants—plants with a “circulatory system” for delivering water and nutrients
Division	Magnoliophyta	Flowering plants, also known as angiosperms
Class	Magnoliopsida	Dicotyledons—plants with two initial seed leaves
Subclass	Rosidae	Roses, legumes, proteas, dogwoods, hydrangeas, mistletoes, euphorbias, grapes, many more
Order	Malpighiales	A broad group encompassing 16,000 species
Family	Euphorbiaceae	Euphorbia or spurge family
Genus	Euphorbia	An extremely diverse-looking genus of mostly tropical and subtropical succulent plants. For Euphorbus, corpulent Greek physician of Juba II, King of Mauretania. Literally, “euphorbia” means “well-fed”
Species	baioensis	From Baio, a mountain in Kenya where this species was first discovered

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Range: Zones 10b-11b:

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