Euphorbia carissoides  |  

Chamaesyce carissoides, Family Euphorbiaceae, is a spreading, upright woody subshrub to
60 cm high. The plants exude a caustic milky sap when cut or injured. The stems and leaves
are hairless. The leaves are borne on leaf stalks 1.7Ð2 mm long and arranged in opposite pairs
along the branchlets. The leaf blades are ovate in outline, 6Ð22 mm long by 4Ð15 mm wide,
heart-shaped at the base and finely toothed on the margins. The tiny, highly modified flowers
are borne in small cup-shaped organs (cyathium). Each cyathium contains several mostly
inconspicuous male flowers and one central female flower with a conspicuous protruding
ovary. On the rim of each cyathium are four red glands each with a prominent white, toothed
appendage. The cyathia are arranged singly in the leaf axils. The fruiting capsules are more or
less globose in shape, and 3Ð4 mm long by about 5 mm in diameter. The walls of the mature
capsules split to release three seeds (Forster, 1993; Queensland Herbarium, 2008).