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Euphorbia bongensis

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Photo by Thomas Müller.


The leaves by Frank Vincentz, Wikimedia.org.

Author:  C.G.T. Kotschy & P. Boissier, 1866
Family:  EUPHORBIACEAE
Origin:  Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia
Soil:  Mix
Water:  Minimum - Medium
Sun:  Medium - Maximum
Thickness:  5 Centimetres
Height:  40 Centimetres
Flower:  Green / Reddish
Propagate:  Seeds/Cuttings
Names:  -
Synonyms:  Euphorbia djurensis, Schweinfurth, Georg August. ex Ferdinand Albin Pax, 1894

This member of the Euphorbiaceae family was given this name by Carl Georg Theodor Kotschy and Peyrex Boissier in 1866. It is found in Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, growing in a well drained soil with little to some water and some to lots of sun. The caudex can grow to five centimetres in diameter and 30 centimetres long, and will be buried in the wild, but can be exposed. The plant will grow up to 40 or even 60 centimetres.

The genera name; Euphorbia dates back to the first century BC, where King Juba II of Mauritania used it in a reference to his doctor, Euphorbos, and that name was kept as a generic name by Carl von Linnaeus. The species name refers to Bongo in the present day South Sudan, published by Theodore Kotschy & Jean Peyritsch in the Plantae Tinneanae, of the Sudanese expedition of Alexandrina Tinne & John Tinne, published in 1867. However, de Candolle actually published the name in 1866 in the Prodromus systematis naturalis regni vegetabilis, but credits Carl Georg Theodor Kotschy & Peyrex Boissier for their, at that time, unpublished Plantae Tinneanae.