Milkweed
Euphorbia peplus L.
- light
- Sun–part
- water
- Medium
- tall
- 13 cm
- wide
- —
Euphorbiaceae
Also called Cancer weed, Petty spurge, Radium weed
Formerly Esula peplus, Euphorbion peplum, Galarhoeus peplus, Keraselma peplus, and 1 more
When it flowers
Not known yet in the tropics: too few flowering observations to read a season from.
If a child, a pet or anyone may have eaten a plant, contact a doctor or vet straight away, or call the National Poisons Information Centre (AIIMS, New Delhi) on 1800 116 117, free and open 24 hours.
Something wrong with it?About it
- Grows as
- AnnualKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Climate
- TemperateKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Wild in
- Medit. to Somalia, Europe to W. HimalayaKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Light
- Full sun to part shade (3 h or more)Read from NC State Extension, one source
- Height
- 5 cm to 20 cmRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Water
- Average: moist, well drainedRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Flowers
- Yellow, greenRead from NC State Extension, one source
Not known yet: spread, coldest it survives, heat, hottest it survives.
In other languages (12)
- Italian
- Euforbia minore
- Japanese
- チャボタイゲキ
- Dutch
- tuinwolfsmelk, Tuinwolfsmelk
- Polish
- Wilczomlecz ogrodowy
- Portuguese
- Ésula-redonda
- Quechua
- Awaka
- Russian
- Молочай огородный
- Slovak
- mliečnik okrúhlolistý
- Slovenian
- Vrtni mleček, vrtni mleček
- Swedish
- Rävtörel
- Turkish
- Küçük sütleğen
- Chinese
- 南欧大戟, 癣草, 荸艾類大戟
Where this comes from
- Wikidata, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0
- Kew's checklist, read 2026-10-24, CC-BY-4.0
- NC State Extension, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikimedia Commons, read 2026-10-25, Public domain
- 3D model: Euphorbia peplus (built for Vanagrha) by Vanagrha, own
A fact “checked by a majority of its sources” was settled by a vote of the pages it was read from, not by a person reading it; one marked “one source” rests on that page alone. Anything else not marked checked has not been checked yet. Where nothing is known, the page says so rather than guess.