E. ingens?

[GermanStar]

Or something else? Also, how might I enhance its chances as surviving our next Zone 9b winter? It's still small but growing like a weed, I'd hate to lose it...

[guerrilla gardener]

I don't think this one is ingens. If no one comes up with the name I'll look it up in the euphorbia books.

[GermanStar]

It leafs out, grows fast, and it's about the size of E. ammak, but lacks the undulations on every E. ammak I've seen. That pic is a couple months old; since then, it's grown another inch or so (nothing grows in June & July in my area, I expect it to start taking off wildly again any time now), started a half dozen new branches, and the light green new growth has darkened considerably.

[guerrilla gardener]

Might this be the plant? I know it's not the best photo and I'll look in the books hopefully tonight. But right now it's back outside to water.

[GermanStar]

Provided the above leafs out, it looks as much like it as anything I've seen.

[guerrilla gardener]

Are the leaves small? Mine only leafs out in the areas that don't get much sun. The leaves in the sun don't last very long.

How about E. acrurensis/

PlantFiles: Picture #4 of Desert Candle (Euphorbia abyssinica)

That's my guess. Anyone else??

[Tim Harvey]

E. trigona? How many ribs?

T

[guerrilla gardener]

Tim, I think it's much to big to be trigona.
I just looked at all the photos for that entry on davesgarden and the plants in the photos don't match. So the link is to a photo of the plant I think you're talking about BUT it is not a photo E. acrurensis. There's a discussion about the photos and the fact that the plants don't match.
Still looking for the right name.

[GermanStar]

Definitely not E. trigona. Far too large. Sometimes three ribs, more times four.

[GermanStar]

Originally Posted by guerrilla gardener

Are the leaves small? Mine only leafs out in the areas that don't get much sun. The leaves in the sun don't last very long.

How about E. acrurensis/

PlantFiles: Picture #4 of Desert Candle (Euphorbia abyssinica)

That's my guess. Anyone else??

I am sure as I can be that this is it. Assuming it's properly identified.

[guerrilla gardener]

Ok! I'm sticking with E. acrurensis. I looked it up in the Euphorbia #1 book. Page 50 has a plant called E. abyssinica and page 51 has E. acrurensis. So, even though davesgarden has them as synonyms of the same plant the Euphorbia book has them as two different plants.
I'm pretty sure E acrurensis has 3 to 4 ridges but no more than 4 (?) while E. abyssinica is multi ridged. 6 to 8 or more.

[GermanStar]

Sounds entirely reasonable. Thank you for your efforts, sir! I'll say this, Google Pic returns more pics of my plant searching E. acrurensis than anything else I've tried, for whatever that's worth.

[perez-suares]

There is a big plant in my garden on Gran Canaria , see my pic, but it's like weed, my wife make a lot of cuts....today all my friends have plants in there houses in Germany!!!
Every year it gives me more than 10.000 seeds.
Three years ago I bought I little Euphorbia ingens v. variegata, today I have three plants more than 2m in my garden on Gran Canaria, these plants are growing a little bit slower.
perez-suares
Euphorbia ingens is very common plant, see "Das Sukkulentenlexikon", Hermann Jacobsen, 1970, it is not E. acrurensis
(E.abyssinica v. tetragona, SCHWEINFURTH), see the description, I have both plants, E. abyssinica don't like heat and hot winds.

[GermanStar]

Originally Posted by guerrilla gardener

Ok! I'm sticking with E. acrurensis. I looked it up in the Euphorbia #1 book. Page 50 has a plant called E. abyssinica and page 51 has E. acrurensis. So, even though davesgarden has them as synonyms of the same plant the Euphorbia book has them as two different plants.
I'm pretty sure E acrurensis has 3 to 4 ridges but no more than 4 (?) while E. abyssinica is multi ridged. 6 to 8 or more.

Might I ask what book you're using as a reference?

[guerrilla gardener]

The Euphorbia Journal series of books (have you heard of them?). It's in book #1 of 10 (so far). I think a complete set of ten is several hundred dollars (U.S.). #1 was published in 1983 by strawberry press. I contacted Davesgarden.com on the synonym issue and they sent me a few links showing they are suppose to be variations of the same plant. I don't have time right now to research the written information in the euphorbia journal books (as there are several entrees in several journals) to see what they have written on these plants. Let me know if you want more information and I'll look up all the info, in all the euphorbia journals, on both names when I get some time.
Hope this has helped,

[GermanStar]

That is very helpful, thank you kindly.

[guerrilla gardener]

I looked up all the entries for Euphorbia abyssinica & Euphorbia acrurensis in the Euphorbia Journals but there wasn't any useful information. The consensus is that they are all the same plant. But personally I think they look way to different. So I'm labeling mine E. acrurensis.

Here's a good conversation about these plants. Palmbob is very knowledgeable and he's still confused.
PlantFiles Pictures: Desert Candle (Euphorbia acrurensis)

Euphorbia abyssinica synonyms:

Euphorbia abyssinica var. erythraeae A Berger
Euphorbia abyssinica var. tetragona Schweinfurth 1899
Euphorbia acrurensis N.E.Br. 1912
Euphorbia aethiopum Croizat 1941
Euphorbia candelabrum var. erythraeae A. Berger 1907
Euphorbia controversa N.E.Br. 1912
Euphorbia disclusa N.E.Br. 1912
Euphorbia erythraeae (Berger) N.E.Br. 1912
Euphorbia grandis Lemaire 1857
Euphorbia hararensis Pax 1907
Euphorbia neglecta N.E.Br. 1912
Euphorbia neutra A.Berger 1907
Euphorbia obovalifolia A.Richard 1851
Euphorbia officinarum var. kolquall Willddenow 1799
Euphorbia richardiana Baillon 1860

source for synonyms: Euphorbia abyssinica

[Stan]

I have abyssinica and ammak variegata. One obvious difference is abyssinia has about 60% all black thorns,ammak 100% all grey or whitish. abyssinica is more transluscent than ingens also. E. abyssinica doesnt seem to branch anywheres near as dense as E.ingens. My plants range from 12-14' so,not quite trees but around here in the bay area getting impressive. E.abyssinica is slightly more frost hardy..down to 30f they take before some tip burn.E.ammak can burn noticeably at 32f..and how many hours at those temps would change things of course.
The only problem is that we get more rain than soucal and both have had problems in long wet seasons staying perfectly upright. Slight leans get bracing since I have heard they topple even at the Huntington in wet years.

[GermanStar]

Thanks for the info. My little guy has started branching wildly (look toward the base of the new growth on the taller plant). Are we back to E. ingens as a possibility? It's under 3' and has all brown - reddish/brown thorns. It seems right on the cusp of a new growth spurt as Phoenix weather starts becoming a little more tolerable.

[guerrilla gardener]

Originally Posted by GermanStar

Thanks for the info. My little guy has started branching wildly (look toward the base of the new growth on the taller plant). Are we back to E. ingens as a possibility? It's under 3' and has all brown - reddish/brown thorns. It seems right on the cusp of a new growth spurt as Phoenix weather starts becoming a little more tolerable.

Ingens? I doubt it.
I'm 99.99% sure it's the E. acrurensis from of E. abyssinica. Also E. acrurensis branches WAY more than E. abyssinica or E. ingens. And it almost never gets more than 4 ribs. Give it a few years and I'm pretty sure it will look more and more like E. acrurensis.

Try contacting this web site maybe they will help you.
http://www.euphorbia.de/indexe.htm

[GermanStar]

I hope I can keep it alive that long. I'm a Zone 9b with Zone 10 tastes.

[wantonamara]

Isn't that always the case. I am 8b with 9b tastes.

[Ronald Chisum]

I have a Eu. ingens that is nearly 30 ft tall ( see photo album of my yard). Last year while driving along the North shore of the big island of Hawaii, I saw a Eu. trigona with more than a one foot trunk diameter near Hawi. I had no idea they could get this big. Hope you enjoy this photo as much as I did in finding this plant.. Ron Chisumhttp://www.xericworld.com/forums/images/styles/smartbrown/attach/jpeg.gif

[GermanStar]

Wow! I didn't either, thanks for sharing!

[palmbob]

I'm pretty sure that is Euphorbia lactea, which does indeed get that large commonly in the tropics... but E trigona does not grow like that... no idea if it, too, becomes a tree- never seen one... but that is not E trigona.