Euphorbia peplus

Not to be confused with Euphorbia peplis, Purple spurge, a relatively rare plant of coastal sand and shingle.

Euphorbia peplus (petty spurge,^[1][2] radium weed,^[2] cancer weed,^[2] or milkweed),^[2] is a species of Euphorbia, native to most of Europe, northern Africa and western Asia, where it typically grows in cultivated arable land, gardens and other disturbed land.^[1][3][4]

Euphorbia peplus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Rosids
Order:	Malpighiales
Family:	Euphorbiaceae
Genus:	Euphorbia
Species:	E. peplus
Binomial name
Euphorbia peplus L.

Outside of its native range it is very widely naturalised and often invasive, including in Australia, New Zealand, North America and other countries in temperate and sub-tropical regions.^[1]

Description

It is an annual plant growing to 5–30 cm (2–12 in) tall (most plants growing as weeds of cultivation tend towards the smaller end), with smooth hairless stems. The leaves are stalked, oval-acute, 1–3 cm (0.4–1.2 in) long, with untoothed margin. It has green flowers in three-rayed umbels. The glands typically of Euphorbia are kidney-shaped, and have long thin horns.^[4]

var. minima has stems low, ascending, branchy, leaves roundish, seeds smaller 1-1.4 mm (vs. 1.3-1.6 mm of var. peplus),^[5] predominantly countries on the north edge of the Mediterranean (PoWo Map)

Euphorbia peplus cyathium

Medicinal uses

The plant's sap is toxic to rapidly replicating human tissue, and has long been used as a traditional remedy for common skin lesions.^[6] The active ingredient in the sap is a diterpene ester called ingenol mebutate.

A pharmaceutical-grade ingenol mebutate gel has approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for treatment of actinic keratosis.^[6][7][8]

In Germany, recent studies have linked Euphorbia peplus with the virtual elimination of squamous cell skin cancer.^[9]