Species
+

Euphorbia lactea Haw.

Candelero (ES), Devil's Walking Stick, Kaktùs sürnam, Mottled Spurge

No habitat climate 44 photographs Cactus or succulent

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Euphorbia lactea is a species of spurge native to arid and subtropical regions of South Asia, mainly the Indian Subcontinent. Common names include mottled spurge, frilled fan, elkhorn, candelabra spurge, candelabrum tree, candelabra cactus, candelabra plant, dragon bones, false cactus, hatrack cactus, milkstripe euphorbia, mottled candlestick.

Text from Wikipedia, “Euphorbia lactea”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Euphorbia

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

Text from Wikipedia, “Euphorbia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Euphorbiaceae
Described by
Haw.
Native to
Sri Lanka
Wild records
none in range

Also known as Euphorbia lactea Roxb.

Cultivation

Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Euphorbia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum, and no habitat climate is derived yet; no cold floor is given, and no prose comes from the table.

Nothing derived: no habitat climate for this species, and the archetype table has no figure for its genus or family.

Climate across the habitat

No habitat climate can be derived: No georeferenced record inside the range.

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP.
No openly licensed record to show inside the range.
NativeSri Lanka· introduced: Comoros, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Thailand, Society Is., Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Hawaii, Bahamas, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., Ecuador
Kew's description“succulent shrub or tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedNo georeferenced records inside the stated native range.

Photographs

Euphorbia lacteaEuphorbia lacteaEuphorbia lacteaEuphorbia lacteaEuphorbia lacteaEuphorbia lacteaEuphorbia lacteaEuphorbia lactea

Photographs: (c) Jay Brasher, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Harrison Cole, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Duncan Brooks, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); no rights reserved · CC0.

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Euphorbia lactea, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Topical anti-inflammatory effect of tirucallol, a triterpene isolated from Euphorbia lactea latex
Ángeles Fernández, M. T. Sáenz, Manuel Jesús Baena Arroyo, R. de la Puerta (2009) · Phytomedicine
Effects of diterpenes from latex of Euphorbia lactea and Euphorbia laurifolia on human immunodeficiency virus type 1 reactivation
Liliana Ávila, Moisés Pérez, Gonzalo Sánchez‐Duffhues, Rosario Hernández‐Galán (2009) · Phytochemistry
Diterpene esters of the irritant and cocarcinogenic latex of Euphorbia lactea
Rajiv R. Upadhyay, E. Hecker (1975) · Phytochemistry
Molluscicidal and Anti-Cholinesterase Activity of Euphorbiales
Ajay Singh, R. A. Agarwal (1990) · Biological Agriculture & Horticulture
Euphorbia lactea Sap Keratouveitis
Rohan Merani, Tarinee Sa-ngiampornpanit, Yves Kerdraon, Frank A. Billson (2007) · Cornea
Ingol diterpene ester from the latex of Euphorbia lactea
Ahmed A. Ahmed, Maria Couladis, Ahmed A. Mahmoud, Alicia de Adams (1999) · Fitoterapia
Diterpenoids from Euphorbia lactea and their anti-HIV-1 activity
Ye Zhao, Chen Hua, Yi-ou Sha, Pei‐Qian Wu (2023) · Phytochemistry
Evaluation of anticonvulsant and antiepileptogenic activity of Euphorbia nivulia in PTZ-induced kindling model of epilepsy in mice.
Agha Habibur Rehman, Shakir D Al Sharari, Mahmood Ahmad, Muhammad Akhtar (2019) · PubMed

Other Euphorbia 29 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate nothing to report
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 39 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.