Species
+

Euphorbia tithymaloides L.

Christmas Candle, Devil's Backbone, Devil's-backbone, Jacob's Ladder

Climate known 52 photographs Cactus or succulent
Add one to my plants Sow seed

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 tithymaloides is a perennial succulent spurge native to the tropical and subtropical areas of North America and Central America. An erect shrub, the plant is also known by the scientific name Pedilanthus tithymaloides. However, the genus Pedilanthus has been subsumed into the genus Euphorbia, and is more correctly known by its new name.

Text from Wikipedia, “Euphorbia tithymaloides”, 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
L.
Native to
Florida, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast +33
Wild records
1014 in range· 600 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Aug, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1361mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Sep 196 mm (CHELSA)
Light
29–41DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Euphorbia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, May to October at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (3.0 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 1361 mm a year, wettest September at 196 mm, driest February at 45 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 41 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 18.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Euphorbia caniculata Lodd., 1825; Pedilanthus pringlei Rob.; Pedilanthus tithymaloides (L.) Poit.; Tithymalus tithymaloides (L.) Croizat.

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; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, May to October at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (3.0 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred.

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the year's rain (973 mm of 1361 mm) falls in May to October. The temperature curve is flat, 3.0 °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; with a flat temperature curve there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: 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 gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1361 mm a year, wettest September at 196 mm, driest February at 45 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1361 mm a year at the habitat, 973 mm of it May to October. Wettest month September at 196 mm, driest February at 45 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 841 mm to 2639 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

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

Light Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 41 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 41 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

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.

Warmth and air Cold floor 18.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 18.8 °C, the absolute minimum 15.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 20.3 °C in January (across the envelope cells 13.6 °C to 24.2 °C), warmest day 28.9 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 18.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 65% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 26 °C in Jan to 29 °C in Aug; mean night from 20 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1361 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 718 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 15.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 36.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°36.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)15.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 29–41RH 60–65 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 718 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C26 / 23–3027 / 24–3128 / 25–3229 / 26–3329 / 26–3329 / 26–3229 / 25–3229 / 26–3229 / 26–3128 / 25–3027 / 25–3027 / 24–29
Night °C20 / 14–2421 / 14–2421 / 16–2423 / 17–2523 / 18–2524 / 18–2624 / 17–2624 / 18–2623 / 18–2623 / 17–2622 / 16–2521 / 14–25
Rain mm55 / 8–19945 / 7–15145 / 8–16860 / 20–198116 / 47–286173 / 74–310159 / 67–289167 / 83–309196 / 89–324162 / 63–309112 / 22–25171 / 11–207
DLI31 / 24–3535 / 29–3838 / 33–4241 / 31–4440 / 28–4337 / 27–4338 / 28–4238 / 30–4234 / 30–3932 / 28–3630 / 25–3429 / 23–33
RH %62 / 57–6761 / 56–6760 / 55–6661 / 55–6763 / 57–6965 / 61–6964 / 60–6964 / 60–6965 / 62–7065 / 60–7064 / 59–7063 / 58–68

Each figure is the median across the 718 grid cells holding the 986 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1579:2143 (11.025, -72.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 15.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 18.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.9 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 718 distinct grid cells holding the 986 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1579:2143 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 11.00_-73.125, lapse-corrected -295 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 367 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 every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeFlorida, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Bahamas, Bermuda, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Turks-Caicos Is., Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North· introduced: Gambia, The, Chad, Malawi, Mozambique, Chagos Archipelago, Comoros, Bangladesh, Andaman Is., Myanmar, Gilbert Is., Vanuatu, Caroline Is., Marianas, Marshall Is., Wake I., Hawaii, Cayman Is., French Guiana
Kew's description“shrub” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker17.658, -96.925 · in the densest population, 340 records (34% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1014 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 600 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 4 km away. 557 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 28 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1014 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Euphorbia tithymaloidesEuphorbia tithymaloidesEuphorbia tithymaloidesEuphorbia tithymaloidesEuphorbia tithymaloidesEuphorbia tithymaloidesEuphorbia tithymaloidesEuphorbia tithymaloides

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Emmett Serrano, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Greg III Espera, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Ricard Busquets Reverte, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

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 tithymaloides, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Folk medicine in the northern coast of Colombia: an overview
Harold Gómez–Estrada, Fredyc Díaz-Castillo, Luis A. Franco-Ospina, Jairo Mercado‐Camargo (2011) · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
The Caribbean slipper spurgeEuphorbia tithymaloides: the first example of a ring species in plants
N. Ivalú Cacho, David Baum (2012) · Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences
Bangladeshi medicinal plant dataset
Bijly Borkatulla, Jannatul Ferdous, Abdul Hasib Uddin, Prince Mahmud (2023) · Data in Brief
La inclusión de Pedilanthus en Euphorbia (Euphorbiaceae)
Víctor W. Steinmann (2003) · Acta Botanica Mexicana
Nectar regulation in Euphorbia tithymaloides L ., a hummingbird‐pollinated E uphorbiaceae
Tania Blanco, Leonardo Galetto, Isabel Cristina Machado (2012) · Plant Biology
Convergent evolution in floral morphology in a plant ring species, the Caribbean Euphorbia tithymaloides
N. Ivalú Cacho, María José Monteverde‐Suárez, Patrick J. McIntyre (2019) · American Journal of Botany
Screening of selected plants from semi-arid region for its phytochemical constituents and antimicrobial activity
Chudasama Rg, NJ Dhanani, RM Amrutiya, R Chandni (2018) · Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry
Isolation and characterization of lectin from the leaves of Euphorbia tithymaloides (L.)
Aruna A. Jawade, Shubhangi Pingle, Rajani G. Tumane, Anvita S. Sharma (2016) · Tropical Plant Research
Eksplorasi dan Inventarisasi Tumbuhan Obat Lokal Berpotensi sebagai Antiinflamasi di Tiga Suku Dayak, Kalimantan Selatan
Yuniarti Suryatinah, Mery Budiarti S., Nur Rahmawati Wijaya, Dwi Hapsari Tjandrarini (2020) · Buletin Plasma Nutfah
Cytotoxicity, anti-diabeticity, and phytocomposition investigation of Vietnamese Euphorbia tithymaloides Linn. (Euphorbiaceae)
Nguyen Vu Duy Khang, Dinh Thi Hong Dao, Nguyễn Thị Thanh, Tran Le Quan (2023) · RSC Advances
Chemical Composition and Antioxidant Potential of Essential Oil and Organic Extracts of Euphorbia tithymaloides L. from Kushtia Region
Atiqur Rahman, Mahmudur Rahman, İbrahim Demirtaş (2018) · Anti-Cancer Agents in Medicinal Chemistry
Potential biofuel exploitation from two common Vietnamese Euphorbia plants (Euphorbiaceae)
Nguyen Vu Duy Khang, Nguyen Thi Y Nhi, Tran Le Quan (2023) · Biofuels Bioproducts and Biorefining

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

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 answered
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 164 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.