Snow on the Mountain Halloween Parties: Ghostly Roots, Sap, Shoots

Summary: Snow on the mountain Halloween parties scare guests and hosts, a little or a lot, when supplemented by same-flowering crown-of-thorns and scarlet plume.

Snow on the Mountain (Euphorbia marginata); Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, southwestern Oklahoma; Aug. 2, 2007: George Bishop/US Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters (USFWS Headquarters), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr

Snow on the mountain Halloween parties audition ghostly white margins on the mature foliage of native North American herbaceous plants potted for less or more scary All Hallows Eve parties Oct. 31st.

The herbaceous nonwoody annual in the Euphorbiaceae family of cactus-like, spurge-related herbs, shrubs and trees bears all-white or white-edged bracts and green-yellow blooms with white appendages. It contains a ghostly, milky, white sap that causes irritating rashes upon contact with sensitive skin and various degrees of food poisoning in cattle and horses. The blistered, inflamed reactions of allergy-induced, toxin-ingested irritation of the esophagus, eyes, mouth, mucous membranes, skin and throats of livestock and people demand posted precautionary signage.

Otherwise, the ghostly, milky, white flowery and leafy displays of snow on the mountain emerge in June or July and endure all the way through October.

The ghostly, snow-like foliar edges of the native North American annual furnish the scientific name Euphorbia marginata (Euphorbus's [flourished 1st century A.D.] [spurge with white] margins).

Snow on the mountain, described by German-American botanist Friedrich Traugott Pursh (Feb. 4, 1774-July 1, 1820) from Großenhain, Saxony, gets alternate-arranged, elliptical, oblong or oval leaves. The 0.79- to 3.94-inch- (2- to 10-centimeter-) long, 0.5- to 1-inch- (1.27- to 2.54-centimeter-) wide foliage has blunt- or sharp-pointed tips and rounded to short-tapered bases. It includes smooth margins and is light to medium green higher up on the 1- to 6-foot- (0.32- to 1.83-meter-) tall stems and yellow lower down.

Snow on the mountain Halloween parties juggle all-white or white-edged floral, petal-like leaves called bracts, green-white somewhat hairy stems, green-yellow branch-tipped flower clusters and green-yellow foliage.

Snow on the mountain keeps year-round colors in United States Department of Agriculture hardiness zones 10 to 11 and within microclimates in zones two to nine.

Mature, 1- to 2-foot- (0.32- to 0.61-meter-) thick shrubs locate cup-shaped, 0.16- to 0.24-inch- (4- to 6-millimeter-) long inflorescences on red-yellowed stems atop branching, short taproots. Every flower cluster maintains along its upper rim four glandular appendages, each with a green, kidney-shaped, 0.02-inch- (0.5-millimeter-) long glandular pit surrounded by petal-like, white-winged extensions. Petal-, scent-, sepal-free flowers, whether male with yellow anthers on stamens or seedy females with three-celled, three-styled pistils, need nectar- and pollen-seeking bees, flies and wasps.

Self-seeding of ash-colored seeds in white-haired capsules occurs six to eight weeks before spring's last frost, well in advance of snow on the mountain Halloween parties.

Female flowers produce 0.19- to 0.28-inch- (5- to 7-millimeter-) long capsules, 0.24 to 0.32 inches (6 to 8 millimeters) across, atop stout-stalked, 0.39-inch- (10-millimeter-) long pedicels.

The knobby, oval, 0.12- to 0.18-inch- (3- to 4.5-millimeter-) long seeds quit their capsules quickly in drought-tolerant, sun-absorbent, well-drained meadow-, prairie-, roadside-, slope- or upland-like soils. Mourning dove-friendly, toxic seeds require chalky, clayey, limey, loamy, rocky, sandy pHs, 6.8 to 7.2, from which snow on the mountain removes air-, soil-, water-borne pollutants. Snow on the mountain, commonly named smoke on the prairie, variegated spurge and white-margined spurge, shows less attractively clumped growth habits in other than minimal shade.

Snow on the mountain Halloween parties terrify guests and hosts, less or more, with related, simultaneously blooming scarlet plume (Euphorbia fulgens) and torturous crown-of-thorns (E. milii).

Snow on the Mountain (Euphorbia marginata); Wind Cave National Park, southwestern South Dakota; Sept. 18, 2007: NPS (National Park Service) photo by Jim Pisarowicz, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Snow on the Mountain (Euphorbia marginata); Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, southwestern Oklahoma; Aug. 2, 2007: George Bishop/US Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters (USFWS Headquarters), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/50838842@N06/8471001301

Snow on the Mountain (Euphorbia marginata); Wind Cave National Park, southwestern South Dakota; Sept. 18, 2007: NPS (National Park Service) photo by Jim Pisarowicz, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Euphorbia_marginata_NPS-1.jpg?uselang=fr

For further information:

"Euphorbia marginata." Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center > Native Plants > Plant Database.
Available @ http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=EUMA8

"Euphorbia marginata." Missouri Botanical Garden > Gardens & Gardening > Your Garden > Plant Finder.
Available @ http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=e473

"Euphorbia marginata Pursh." Tropicos® > Name Search.
Available @ http://www.tropicos.org/Name/12800160

"Euphorbia marginata Pursh Snow on the Mountain." United States Department of Agriculture > Natural Resources Conservation Service > Plants Database > Plant Profile.
Available @ https://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=euma8

Pursh, Frederick Traugott. 1814. "14. Euphorbia marginata." Flora Americae Septentrionalis; Or, A Systematic Arrangement and Description of the Plants of North America. Vol. II: 607. London, England: White, Cochrane, and Co.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/401934

"Snow-on-the-Mountain (Euphorbia marginata)." Illinois Wildflowers > Weeds > Plants.
Available @ http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/weeds/plants/snow_mountain.htm