August 15th 2026
Weather: 81°F ⛅
Euphorbia bubalina Boiss.
A good friend of mine, Pam Badger, has some wonderful in ground specimens of Euphorbia bubalina that reach up to around 4 feet tall if I recall correctly. E. bubalina itself is a very sparsely branching large South African shrub with thin stems and large green cyathia sitting atop long peduncles. It's quite showy when in flower, at leaset I think it is. In late 2024 I noticed Pam's plants were all in full flower and beginning to set seed, so I asked her if I could come back with some organza bags to place around the inflorescence to catch the seeds once the dehisce. She kindly obliged.
I was able to grow a great many E. bubalina from that batch of seeds, around one hundred or so. I potted them up earlier this year into several community pots. I recently noticed several of the E. bubalina seedlings were actually showing crests at the apex! While I don't have the largest interest in purchasing crested plants myself, I do enjoy when they naturally occur amongst my own seedlings.
Euphorbia poisonii Pax
Several years ago my wife and I made a trip out to see Jeff Moore at Solana Succulents, I want to say it was earlier 2024, but it could have been in 2023. Jeff was not there at the time, but a helper of his was. We encountered several large specimens of Euphorbia poisonii while we were there. We were able to come to a deal to take several of them home with us.
Since then I've been able to pollinate and develop several batches of seedlings, some of which are around two years old. E. poisonii is a slow growing branching tree primarily found in Tropical West Africa. It develops large succulent leaves with quite small green-yellow cyathia that are fairly trivial to pollinate. The ovaries exert on this species to try and promote cross-pollination.
I used to grow this species in a greenhouse, but have transitioned to keeping them outside which they seem to enjoy in the San Diego climate. I have sown a few batches of seeds this year of E. poisonii, all of which seem to be coming along nicely.
Euphorbia kalisana S. Carter
Two of my more mature clones of Euphorbia kalisana have been through at least two rounds of flowering this year, with the most recent flowering in the past month or so being the most prolific in seed production. The base of my E. kalisana stock and show plant is beginning to become quite rotund and noticeably spherical as it corks over. As noted previously, kalisana is swahili for "very fierce", as the spines of E. kalisana are around two inches long if I had to guess. The seed of E. kalisana can be difficult to capture without enveloping the entire plant before the seed pods decide to pop. I collected a few dozen seed today, with more still waiting to be collected from the parent plants.
Euphorbia croizatii (Hurus.) Kitag.
I noticed a grouping of large Euphorbia croizatii on a trip to Arid Lands out in Tucson earlier this year. I wasn't sure if they were actually for sale or for stock at the time. I tracked down Bob Webb to see what the story on the E. croizatii was, and he let me know I was free to pick one of the plants to take with me. These E. croizatii are quite nice as they are the colorful cyathia form of this large, spiny, leafy, Madagascan shrub. While E. croizatii can grow up to 2 meters tall in habitat, I've also been growing a related species, Euphorbia gigantea. E. gigantea resembles E. croizatii but can grow up to 6 meters tall. I'll have to cover this related species in the future, and compare and constrast the cyathia once it actually flowers for me.
For now, I've been experimenting with some of the larger Madagascan Euphorbia, and have been growing them outdoors in a good amount of sun, but shade for parts of the day. I've had luck with other Madagascan shrubs outdoors, such as Euphorbia genoudiana, so hopefully E. croizatii makes it through the winter fine in a similar environment.
Euphorbia enopla Boiss. (variegated)
This is a fun oddity within my collection. I don't tend to track down or search for variegates explicitly, though when I saw a variegated clump of Euphorbia enopla, I decided to pick it up. The stock plan came in quite lanky and etiolated, so I've been snipping off cuttings to start and develop more typical looking plants. I've been experimenting with one of the rooted cuttings in full sun outside of the greenhouse. So far it's been doing fine with no sunburn. Hopefully it continues to thrive.
While I received this plant as Euphorbia enopla, I've been inclined to believe that it may actually instead be Euphorbia aggregata.
