Euphorbia tithymaloides
Synonym: Pedilanthus tithymaloides.
English: Devil’s Backbone; Japanese Lady Slipper; Japanese Poinsettia; Redbird cactus; Christmas candle; Jacob’s ladder.
Clades: Angiospermae, Fabanae, Fabidae, Euphorbiaceae, Stage 17.
Mythology: Snow white.
Content: toxic; euphorbol, a complex terpene and carcinogen.
Use: hydrocarbons, solvents like petroleum ether, benzene and ethyl acetate, comparable with gasoline.
Botany
Shrub; perennial; succulent, erect.
DD: Scorpio.
Sources
Encyclopedia of Tropical Plants; Ahmed Fayaz.
Spoerke and Smolinske, Toxicity of Houseplants, 1990, p. 181.
Nellis, Poisonous Plants and Animals of Florida and the Caribbean, 1997, p. 182.
Neumann, Kumar, and Sopory, Recent Advances in Plant Biotechnology and Its Applications, 2008.
Potential use of Pedilanthus tithymaloides as a renewable resource of plant hydrocarbons.