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Euphorbia x martinii, red spurge
Summary
Its unusual structure makes it a popular plant with flower arrangers but the temporary blindness its latex sap can cause means it must be handled with care.
Family
Euphorbiaceae
Euphorbia x martinii,
red spurge
Meaning of the Name
Euphorbia
Named for Euphorbus, the 1st century Greek physician to King Juba II
of Numidia or Mauritania depending on which source you read. These
two adjacent African kingdoms are part of modern Algeria. A literal
translation could be 'plenty of food' but that seems an odd name to
ascribe to a poisonous genus.
x martinii
The ‘x’ in a plant name denotes a cross and usually means an
artificially created plant with the name of the creator following.
It is said, however, that E. x martinii is a naturally-occurring
hybrid from southern France between E. characias and E. amygdaloides.
Common Names and Synonyms
red spurge, Martin's spurge.
How Poisonous, How Harmful?
The milky latex which exudes from the cut stems is believed to contain a resin, an alkaloid, a glycoside and a dihydroxycoumarin. The full nature of the latex is not understood.
Though ingestion of the latex could be fatal and burning of the skin can result if the latex is left in place, the most usual problem resulting from Euphorbia spp. is inflammation of the eyes and, occasionally, temporary blindness resulting from contact.
Incidents
A number of people have spoken of suffering eye inflammation after handling the plant.
A woman said that she had cut back a rockery version of Euphorbia. The stem was very hard and when she cut into it the sap squirted up to her right eye. Her face became swollen, ‘it looked square’, and her vision became very poor. Her husband said that, after a few days, something which looked like a fish scale came off her eye.
A man reported being blind for four days after clearing a large patch of Euphorbia from the garden.
In American Medicinal Plants, Charles F. Millspaugh says that a number of varieties of Euphorbia have been used medicinally, especially as a purgative. Millspaugh notes that, as was common practice in those times, he collects his own plants for use and, in so doing, he has twice suffered momentary blindness from gathering spurge.
Folklore and Facts
Is said to kill fish without making the flesh inedible to humans. Throw any spurge into water and harvest the poisoned fish. It has been known to self seed in gardens and, in one case, it grew close to a pond resulting in the death of all the fish.
According to Pliny the Elder, it was used medicinally in Rome but the juice is so potent that it was collected from a distance but, even so, the collectors found their eyesight affected. One use was against snakebite by making an incision in the top of the head and pouring it on regardless of where the bite was.
The poinsettia, Euphorbia pulcherrima, has been subject of much dispute about its toxicity. There are numerous reports that it is harmless but the Washington Poison Control Center lists it as being capable of causing nausea and diarrhoea due to its ‘minor toxicity’ as well as being capable of causing dermatitis from contact. Every Christmas there are numerous stories in the press or the internet, mostly written by Americans because the poinsettia is much more common as a Christmas plant in the USA. Many of these state that poinsettia is not poisonous because you would have to eat a great many leaves before you became sick. Generally, they warn about possible problems from handling.
It seems that people are assuming that poisonous must mean 'deadly poisonous'.
The attempt to pass poinsettia off as non-poisonous rather than 'unlikely to be harmful' often seems to be driven by florists who do not want people to be discouraged from buying the plant.
