Most Popular Types of Euphorbia Varieties
1. Dragon Bones Tree
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Botanical Name: Euphorbia lactea
USDA Zones: 10a-11b
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This small tree or shrub showcases upright green stems in cross-sections with a pale center. They have showy white and lime green patterns, with a couple of blackthorns.
2. Crown of Thorns
Jennifer Stone
Botanical Name: Euphorbia milii
USDA Zones: 9-11
This evergreen bushy euphorbia is often grown as a houseplant. You can choose from different varieties with pink, red, or yellow blooms that flowers continually.
Check out our article on growing Crown of Thorns here
3. Wood Spurge
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Botanical Name: Euphorbia amygdaloides
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USDA Zones: 6-8
Wood spurges are an evergreen type of euphorbia varieties that bloom in yellow flowers from mid to late spring and grow up to 1-2 feet tall.
4. Donkey Tail Spurge
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Botanical Name: Euphorbia myrsinites
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USDA Zones: 5-9
This creeping perennial can grow up to 1-2 feet tall and displays blue-gray leaves with yellow blooms. It looks great in compact pots.
5. Basketball Euphorbia
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Botanical Name: Euphorbia obesa
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USDA Zones: 9-11
This small succulent has a ball-shaped round stem that slowly turns cylindrical with maturity. These types of euphorbia varieties are famous as houseplants.
6. Cushion Spurge
Botanical Name: Euphorbia polychroma
USDA Zones: 4-8
This clumping perennial features yellow blooms during spring. The foliage is very dense, which gives it a cushion-like look.
7. River Euphorbia
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Botanical Name: Euphorbia triangularis
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USDA Zones: 10a-11b
Also popular as Chandelier Tree, this succulent has several cylindrical trunks with a crown of upward light green to yellow-green branches.
8. Pencil Milkbush
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Botanical Name: Euphorbia mauritanica
USDA Zones: 9b-11b
Also popular as Golden Spurge, Yellow Milkbush, and Jackal’s Food, these types of euphorbia varieties offer several upright, fleshy, pencil-like branches.
9. Debilispina
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Botanical Name: Euphorbia debilispina
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USDA Zones: 10a-11b
This spiny succulent shrub produces large, heavily branched clumps. The gray-green to blue-green stems display a red tinge in full sun.
10. Leafless Spurge
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Botanical Name: Euphorbia aphylla
USDA Zones: 9b-11b
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It features leafless light gray-green, yellow-green, or blue-green stems that grow from a short trunk. Yellow flowers open in clusters year-round but primarily in spring and fall.
11. String of Stars
Botanical Name: Euphorbia guiengola
USDA Zones: 10b-11b
It’s a rare, spreading succulent that offers branched stems, small green leaves, and several white blooms with red centers. This deciduous plant flowers continuously during winter.
Take a look at the most Popular String Plants here
12. Red Monadenium
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Botanical Name: Euphorbia neorubella
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USDA Zones: 10a-11b
This variety features clusters of many small tubers or large round tuber. Dark green leaves with red undersides grow on the top of green stems patterned in purple-green streaks.
13. Antique Spurge
Botanical Name: Euphorbia antiquorum
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USDA Zones: 10a-11b
Antique Spurge is a small tree or shrub with smooth green branches, green leaves, and brown cylindrical stems. Clusters of yellow-green to pink blooms appear across the year.
14. Damask
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Botanical Name: Euphorbia abdelkuri
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USDA Zones: 9-11
This clumping succulent has columnar stems with green-gray to ash-gray hues. Not only it looks quirky, but it is also a great compact specimen for small spaces!
15. Vulcanorum
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Botanical Name: Euphorbia vulcanorum
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USDA Zones: 10a-11b
This succulent shrub has dense 4-5 angled green branches that grow up to 2-3 feet tall and 4-5 feet wide. It blooms in small, ornamental orange-red fiery flowers from spring and fall.
16. Baioensis
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Botanical Name: Euphorbia baioensis
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USDA Zones: 10b-11b
This small succulent has cylindrical long stems covered in spines. It also has red tips that turn black with age. Small pale yellow blooms emerge from spring to summer.
17. Cliff Spurge
Botanical Name: Euphorbia misera
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USDA Zones: 10a-11b
Cliff spurge has twisty stems with dull green round hairy leaves. It flowers in spring with yellow or white blooms.
18. Indian Spurge Tree
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Botanical Name: Euphorbia neriifolia
USDA Zones: 10-12
This prickly succulent shrub grows up to 15-18 feet tall with thick stems, large green leaves, and gray-brown to black spines.
19. Thornless Crown of Thorns
Shaz
Botanical Name: Euphorbia geroldii
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USDA Zones: 9-11
This beautiful semi-succulent shrub has no spines and features glossy deep green leaves. It constantly blooms in coral-red flowers with yellow centers.
20. African Candelabra
Botanical Name: Euphorbia ammak
USDA Zones: 9-12
This tree-like plant can achieve an impressive height of 15-20 feet over time. The broad and obconical crowns are erect and have lanceolate leaves at the top.
21. False Globose Spurge
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Botanical Name: Euphorbia pseudoglobosa
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USDA Zones: 8-11
This dwarf spineless euphorbia creates a thick mat of gray-green stems with 5-6 ribs. It blooms in small, unisexual, yellow flowers at the tips.
22. Desert Candle
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Botanical Name: Euphorbia abyssinica
USDA Zones: 9-11
Desert Candle grows a thick green trunk that becomes woody with maturity. The flowers grow without petals but have yellow bracts.
23. Decaryi
Botanical Name: Euphorbia ‘Decaryi’
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USDA Zones: 9-11
It stands out with its wavy foliage. This mat-forming plant grows up to 4-6 inches tall and blooms in yellow, red, or yellow-green flowers.
24. Caribbean Copper Plant
pixahive
Botanical Name: Euphorbia cotinifolia
Hardiness Zones: 8-11
This tropical shrub bears ovate fleshy coppery-red purple leaves. Flowers appear in late spring to mid-summer.
25. Poinsettia
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Botanical Name: Euphorbia pulcherrima
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USDA Zones: 9-11
This small shrub has upright stems with beautiful red leaves or bracts that look like flowers. It is one of the most beautiful types of euphorbia varieties you can grow!
Here are 32 Different Types of Poinsettia Color Pictures
26. Pencil Cactus
Botanical Name: Euphorbia tirucalli
USDA Zones: 9-12
Pencil cactus is a tropical succulent plant that is native to Africa and India. It is also called “firestick” or “milk bush” due to its milky sap and long, thin branches that resemble pencils.
