Summary ⁶

Euphorbia nutans (eyebane / nodding spurge) is a species of Euphorbia native to much of the United States, Eastern Canada, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and Venezuela. It can be a noxious weed in areas where it inhabits.

Botanical Information ⁷

Euphorbia nutans is commonly known as eyebanes, chamaesyce nutans, euphorbia, or nodding spurge. Eyebanes are summer annual weeds (3). It can grow between one and three feet wide. The leaves of eyebanes are green and oval shaped. The top surface of this leaf sometimes has a red dot (1). There are two leaves per node. Eyebanes are a ground cover plant and they spread out as they grow. The stem of this plant is weak and can't support much weight (2). They grow and bloom from August to November(1). In the stems there is white poisonous latex (3). This latex is sap-like, and can irritate eyes or make your skin itchy (4).

Ecological Information ⁸

Eyebanes grows almost everywhere in New Mexico because it’s a great climate for this plant. It has a high drought tolerance and lasts in dry soil. The one thing it really needs is a lot of sun, so this plant will tend to grow almost anywhere as long as there is dirt and plenty of sunlight for it. Chamaesyce Nutans attracts bees, wasps, and Syphid flies. The reason for them being attracted is because of the nectar. The mourning dove and greater prairie chicken will eat the seeds from it (3).

Ethnobotanical Information ⁸

References ⁹

1) TWC Staff, Plant Database, Ladybird Johnson wildflower center, 2018-09-24, 3-29-19, https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=CHNU9
2) Arthur, Euphorbia Nutans, Go Botany, ,3-29-19, https://gobotany.newenglandwild.org/species/euphorbia/nutans/
3)Nodding spurge, 3-29-19 no author
4) https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/chamaesyce_maculata.shtml

About the Author ⁹

Student author*: Michael (age 16) from The International School at Mesa Del Sol

*The entries in this field guide have been edited by Yerba Mansa Project staff to ensure that they contain quality, fact-checked content and standardized formatting.

Sources and Credits

1. (c) Tom Potterfield, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/tgpotterfield/15095228101/
2. (c) tadamcochran, all rights reserved, uploaded by tadamcochran
3. (c) Bill Schur, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Bill Schur
4. (c) cwhiting, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by cwhiting
5. (c) Dan Johnson, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Dan Johnson
6. Adapted by caseynm from a work by (c) smiller33, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)
7. Adapted by smiller33 from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphorbia_nutans
8. (c) smiller33, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)
9. (c) caseynm, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)

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