Euphorbia inaequilateraSond.

prostrate spurgesmooth creeping milkweedsmooth prostrate euphorbia

WFO wfo-0000962686 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Euphorbia inaequilatera, photographed by Robert Taylor
fig. a Robert Taylor, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-05-02 / obs. 126758226
Euphorbia inaequilatera, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. b Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 59247223
Euphorbia inaequilatera, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. c Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 19642109
Euphorbia inaequilatera, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. d Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 19685700
Euphorbia inaequilatera, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. e Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 19230476
Euphorbia inaequilatera, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. f Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 15951317
Euphorbia inaequilatera, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. g Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 15944458
Euphorbia inaequilatera, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. h Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 16027892

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 40 botanical countries

Regions where Euphorbia inaequilatera is native: Algeria, Angola, Botswana, Burkina, Burundi, Canary Is., Cape Provinces, Cape Verde, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Free State, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Northern Provinces, Rwanda, Seychelles, Socotra, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Gulf States, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Pakistan AlgeriaAngolaBotswanaBurkinaBurundiCape ProvincesChadDjiboutiEgyptEritreaEswatiniEthiopiaFree StateKenyaKwaZulu-NatalMalawiMaliMauritaniaMoroccoMozambiqueNamibiaNigerNorthern ProvincesRwandaSomaliaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaUgandaZambiaZimbabweAfghanistanGulf StatesIranSaudi ArabiaYemenPakistan Canary Is.Cape VerdeSeychelles
Native distribution of Euphorbia inaequilatera, 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
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Angola ANG
Botswana BOT
Burkina BKN
Burundi BUR
Canary Is. CNY
Cape Provinces CPP
Cape Verde CVI
Chad CHA
Djibouti DJI
Egypt EGY
Eritrea ERI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Free State OFS
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Malawi MLW
Mali MLI
Mauritania MTN
Morocco MOR
Mozambique MOZ
Namibia NAM
Niger NGR
Northern Provinces TVL
Rwanda RWA
Seychelles SEY
Socotra SOC
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM
Afghanistan AFG ASIA-TEMPERATE
Gulf States GST
Iran IRN
Saudi Arabia SAU
Yemen YEM
Pakistan PAK ASIA-TROPICAL

Not drawn on the map: Socotra. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

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 80 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 2.5 °C 4.0 °C 9.3 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 26.1 °C 29.1 °C 33.5 °C
Annual rainfall 129 mm 494 mm 688 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 2 mm 16 mm 46 mm

It is found where winters are cool but frost is light or absent. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 80 research-grade observations of Euphorbia inaequilatera 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 28 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.

  • Alectoroctonum sanguineum Klotzsch & Garcke
  • Anisophyllum inaequilaterum (Sond.) Klotzsch & Garcke
  • Anisophyllum mundii Klotzsch & Garcke
  • Anisophyllum setigerum Klotzsch & Garcke
  • Chamaesyce granulata var. dentata (N.E.Br.) V.S.Raju & P.N.Rao
  • Chamaesyce inaequilatera (Sond.) Soják
  • Chamaesyce inequilatera (Sond.) Soják
  • Euphorbia granulata var. dentata N.E.Br.
  • Euphorbia granulata var. glabra Maire
  • Euphorbia haematodes Boiss.
  • Euphorbia hypericifolia var. pusilla Webb
  • Euphorbia inaequalis N.E.Br.
  • Euphorbia inaequilatera var. dentata N.E.Br.
  • Euphorbia inaequilatera var. dentata (N.E.Br.) M.G.Gilbert
  • Euphorbia inaequilatera var. jemenica (Schweinf.) Oudejans
  • Euphorbia inaequilatera var. perennis N.E.Br.
  • Euphorbia inaequilatera var. spanothrix S.Carter
  • Euphorbia intermedia Hochst. ex Boiss.
  • Euphorbia nelsii Pax
  • Euphorbia parvifolia E.Mey.
  • Euphorbia parvifolia E.Mey. ex Boiss.
  • Euphorbia parvifolia var. laxa Boiss.
  • Euphorbia sanguinea Hochst. & Steud. ex Benth.
  • Euphorbia sanguinea var. intermedia Boiss.

and 4 more.

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. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. 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.