Euphorbia humifusaWilld.

WFO wfo-0000962625 Accepted WFO 2026-06 6 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–f · 4 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 4 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Euphorbia humifusa, photographed by Zinogre
fig. a Zinogre, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2021-08-07 / obs. 149553772
Euphorbia humifusa, photographed by Zinogre
fig. b Zinogre, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 144088873
Euphorbia humifusa, photographed by Kai Löhr
fig. c Kai Löhr, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 57354141
Euphorbia humifusa, photographed by Zinogre
fig. d Zinogre, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 149553790
Euphorbia humifusa, photographed by Kai Löhr
fig. e Kai Löhr, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 57354140
Euphorbia humifusa, photographed by Yi CHEN
fig. f Yi CHEN, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 99889359

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 36 botanical countries

Regions where Euphorbia humifusa is native: Altay, Amur, Buryatiya, China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Chita, Hainan, Inner Mongolia, Iran, Irkutsk, Japan, Kazakhstan, Khabarovsk, Kirgizstan, Korea, Krasnoyarsk, Manchuria, Mongolia, Nansei-shoto, North Caucasus, Primorye, Qinghai, Tadzhikistan, Taiwan, Tibet, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Tuva, Uzbekistan, West Siberia, Xinjiang, Yakutiya, East European Russia, Krym, Ukraine AltayAmurBuryatiyaChina North-CentralChina South-CentralChina SoutheastChitaHainanInner MongoliaIranIrkutskJapanKazakhstanKhabarovskKirgizstanKrasnoyarskManchuriaMongoliaNorth CaucasusPrimoryeQinghaiTadzhikistanTaiwanTibetTranscaucasusTürkiyeTuvaUzbekistanWest SiberiaXinjiangYakutiyaEast European RussiaKrymUkraine KoreaNansei-shoto
Native distribution of Euphorbia humifusa, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Amur AMU
Buryatiya BRY
China North-Central CHN
China South-Central CHC
China Southeast CHS
Chita CTA
Hainan CHH
Inner Mongolia CHI
Iran IRN
Irkutsk IRK
Japan JAP
Kazakhstan KAZ
Khabarovsk KHA
Kirgizstan KGZ
Korea KOR
Krasnoyarsk KRA
Manchuria CHM
Mongolia MON
Nansei-shoto NNS
North Caucasus NCS
Primorye PRM
Qinghai CHQ
Tadzhikistan TZK
Taiwan TAI
Tibet CHT
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Tuva TVA
Uzbekistan UZB
West Siberia WSB
Xinjiang CHX
Yakutiya YAK
East European Russia RUE EUROPE
Krym KRY
Ukraine UKR

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 247 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -27.4 °C -4.5 °C 2.6 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 22.2 °C 25.1 °C 31.6 °C
Annual rainfall 137 mm 535 mm 1,229 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 6 mm 79 mm 181 mm

It is found where winters are arctic. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 247 research-grade observations of Euphorbia humifusa that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 24 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Anisophyllum humifusum (Willd.) Klotzsch & Garcke
  • Chamaesyce humifusa (Willd.) Prokh.
  • Chamaesyce humifusa f. glabra (Thell.) Hurus.
  • Chamaesyce humifusa f. pilosa (Thell.) Hurus.
  • Chamaesyce humifusa var. glabra (Thell.) H.Hara
  • Chamaesyce humifusa var. pilosa (Thell.) H.Hara
  • Chamaesyce humifusa var. pseudochamaesyce (Fisch. & C.A.Mey.) Hurus.
  • Chamaesyce tashiroi (Hayata) H.Hara
  • Euphorbia chamaesyce var. glabra C.A.Mey.
  • Euphorbia chamaesyce var. pilosa C.A.Mey.
  • Euphorbia confusa Blume ex Boiss.
  • Euphorbia goeringii Steud. ex Boiss.
  • Euphorbia humifusa f. glabra (Thell.) S.Z.Liou
  • Euphorbia humifusa f. glabra (Thell.) Murata
  • Euphorbia humifusa f. pilosa (Thell.) S.Z.Liou
  • Euphorbia humifusa var. glabra Thell.
  • Euphorbia humifusa var. pilosa Thell.
  • Euphorbia humifusa var. pseudochamaesyce (Fisch. & C.A.Mey.) Murata
  • Euphorbia polygonisperma Gren. & Godr.
  • Euphorbia pseudochamaesyce Fisch. & C.A.Mey.
  • Euphorbia pseudochamaesyce f. pilosa (C.A.Mey.) Kitag.
  • Euphorbia sanguinea Klotzsch & Garcke
  • Euphorbia tashiroi Hayata
  • Tithymalus humifusus (Willd.) Bubani

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.