Petty spurge is an erect, glabrous annual growing to 18" tall with branching stems and milky juice.  The leaves are alternate, entire, smooth-margined, to 1-3/8" long, and obovate to ovate with a tip that is obtuse to retuse.  The upper leaves are smaller, ovate and opposite.  The flowers are in greenish bell-shaped cyathia on terminal umbels and have four nectariferous glands with yellow, two-horned lobes that are spreading or crescent-shaped.  There are 10-15 staminate flowers and a single pistillate flower with a style that is divided approximately 1/2 its length.  The staminate flowers are usually clustered around the pistillate flower which is in the center of the cyathium.  The fruit is a glabrous, spheric capsule that separates into three 2-valved carpels, and the seeds are oblong, about 1/16" long, 4-angled, dotted and white to gray.  Petty spurge is a common weed found in gardens and other moist disturbed areas mostly around human habitations, blooming from February to August.  It is a native of Europe.  The sap has a toxic component which can cause severe irritation to the eye.

Click here for name derivations: 1) Euphorbia 2) peplus.
Pronunciation: yoo-FOR-bee-a PEP-lus.
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