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Euphorbia fulgens; photograph (c) Dylan Leonard, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) CC BY-SA(c) Dylan Leonard, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · observed growing wild · 2024-08-31

Euphorbia fulgens Karw. ex Klotzsch

Scarlet-plume

Euphorbiaceae · Mexico Southwest

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Euphorbia fulgens, photograph Forest & Kim Starr, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsEuphorbia fulgens, photograph Forest & Kim Starr, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsEuphorbia fulgens, photograph Forest & Kim Starr, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsEuphorbia fulgens, photograph Sesamehoneytart, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsEuphorbia fulgens, photograph Sesamehoneytart, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsEuphorbia fulgens, photograph Nadiatalent, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons 10 photographs ›
Habitat figuresfrom few records
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
10.7°C
Record low 6.5 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Apr at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,415mm
7 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
32–46DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
A sharp rainy season, June to September (the habitat's months, not shifted), in a year of even temperature. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

From few records: 7 records in 7 grid cells. The records.

Summary

Euphorbia fulgens, the scarlet plume, is a species of flowering plant in the spurge family Euphorbiaceae, native to Mexico. Growing to 1.5 m (4.9 ft) tall by 1 m (3.3 ft) broad, it is a deciduous shrub with long, weeping branches and narrow leaves. In winter orange-red flowers growing in the leaf axils cover the length of the branches.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Euphorbia fulgens", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Euphorbia

Euphorbia is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants, commonly called spurge, in the family Euphorbiaceae.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Euphorbia", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,023 mm of 1,417 mm) falls in June to September. The temperature curve is flat, 2.8 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere. The temperature curve moves under 4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

1,417 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,023 mm of it June to September. Wettest month June at 279 mm, driest month January at 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,341 mm to 1,545 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,415 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,417 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 32 to 46 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 27, the highest 90th-percentile month 46).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 10.7 °C, the absolute minimum 6.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.4 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 12.6 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 7.5 °C to 16.4 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.8 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 10.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 54 to 68% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +377 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

From few records: this habitat climate is read from 7 records in 7 grid cells; a page says so under 12 records or 5 cells, and shows the figures as read.

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Euphorbia fulgens through the yearWarmest month April, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 12.6 °C; 1,417 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.5°10°15°20°25°30°35°31.4° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER6.5° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 32–46RH 54–68%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 7 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C25 / 21–2826 / 22–2927 / 23–2928 / 24–3026 / 22–2924 / 20–2725 / 20–2725 / 21–2724 / 20–2624 / 20–2725 / 21–2725 / 21–28
Night °C13 / 8–1613 / 8–1714 / 9–1715 / 10–1916 / 12–2017 / 12–2016 / 11–1916 / 11–1916 / 11–1915 / 11–1914 / 9–1813 / 8–17
Rain mm5 / 4–512 / 12–1315 / 12–1646 / 33–53160 / 134–177279 / 260–300220 / 207–259260 / 248–296264 / 248–300126 / 118–14522 / 21–248 / 7–9
DLI36 / 35–3740 / 39–4144 / 44–4546 / 45–4641 / 40–4133 / 30–3437 / 32–3836 / 31–3732 / 27–3334 / 31–3535 / 34–3734 / 33–36
RH %54 / 54–5655 / 54–5556 / 54–5656 / 55–5762 / 62–6468 / 67–6964 / 64–6765 / 64–6767 / 67–7063 / 63–6559 / 58–6056 / 56–58
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 7 grid cells holding the 7 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1476:1659 (16.175, -97.025). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 6.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 10.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.4 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 7 distinct grid cells holding 7 of the 7 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1476:1659 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 16.00_-96.875, lapse-corrected +377 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1262 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMexico Southwest · introduced: Zambia, Zimbabwe · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker16.174, -96.993 · in the densest population, 11 records (79% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 14 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 7 of them placed to within 10 km, all openly licensed and shown on the map. 12 records outside the WCVP native range not used. Under a dozen records behind the climate. 7 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 14 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Euphorbia fulgens, photograph 1did not loadEuphorbia fulgens, photograph 2did not loadEuphorbia fulgens, photograph 3did not loadEuphorbia fulgens, photograph 4did not loadEuphorbia fulgens, photograph 5did not loadEuphorbia fulgens, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Forest & Kim Starr, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (3); Sesamehoneytart, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (2); Nadiatalent, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Lycaste crinita Lycaste crinita Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, NasserHalawehAchimenes erecta Achimenes erecta Gesneriaceae Photo: CC BY, Codrin BucurProsthechea magnispatha Prosthechea magnispatha Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Dalton Holland BaptistaProsthechea trulla Prosthechea trulla Orchidaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedBegonia squarrosa Begonia squarrosa Begoniaceae Photo: CC BY, Zac PetersonOpuntia deamii Opuntia deamii Cactaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Euphorbia 400 in the reference

Euphorbia abdelkuri Euphorbia abdelkuri Abd al Kuri euphorbia Photo: CC BY-SA, Stan ShebsEuphorbia abyssinica Euphorbia abyssinica Abyssinian spurge Photo: CC BY-SA, Frank VincentzEuphorbia acanthothamnos Euphorbia acanthothamnos Greek spiny spurge Photo: CC BY, Eleftherios KatsillisEuphorbia adenensis Euphorbia adenensis Euphorbiaceae Photo: CC BY, Joey BomEuphorbia aeruginosa Euphorbia aeruginosa Miniature Saguaro Photo: CC0, author not statedEuphorbia aggregata Euphorbia aggregata Pincushion euphorbia Photo: CC BY-SA, Frank VincentzEuphorbia albipollinifera Euphorbia albipollinifera Euphorbiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Frank VincentzEuphorbia alfredii Euphorbia alfredii Euphorbiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Frank VincentzEuphorbia alluaudii Euphorbia alluaudii Euphorbiaceae Photo: CC BY, amantedarmaninEuphorbia ambovombensis Euphorbia ambovombensis Euphorbiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Frank VincentzEuphorbia ammak Euphorbia ammak Euphorbiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Frank VincentzEuphorbia ampliphylla Euphorbia ampliphylla Euphorbiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Medium69 (William Crochot) all 401 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Euphorbia jacquiniiflora; Trichosterigma fulgens. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Euphorbiaceae
Described by
Karw. ex Klotzsch
Native to
Mexico Southwest
Wild records
14 in range · 14 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 14 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (10 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 4 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 16.00_-96.875, lapse-corrected +377 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rules
Wikimedia Commons commons answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 21 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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