We came across this rather unique-looking arborescent Lebombo euphorbia (Euphorbia confinalis) in the southeastern reaches of Kruger National Park as we drove across the dry and nearly leafless thornscrub landscape en route to the Lower Sabie Camp. These bizarre and beautiful plants are limited to a relatively small region of South Africa and adjacent areas of Swaziland, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe. Evidently at least two variants are recognized. This one, E. confinalis var confinalis, is characterized by a tendency towards being a single primary trunk and by having branches with 3 to 4 angles. The other, E. c. var rhodesiaca, has more main trunks in a grove plus branches that are 5 to 6 angled. It is found on granitic outcrops and koppies farther north in Zimbabwe only.

Lebombo euphorbias appear to strongly prefer rocky hills and ridges, especially towards the summits of ranges such as the namesake Lebombo Mountains, where they rim the skyline with inverted umbrella-like crowns of branches arranged around a central axis. I’d love to grow this plant for its wonderful appearance, but I am 100% sure that they don’t tolerate much frost if any, and that’s the single biggest reason for why I don’t have any columnar euphorbia species at my Arizona cactus ranch. But seeing them wild is at least a decent substitute.

This particular umbrella-like growth form is rather uncommon among plants, and especially so in dicots like Euphorbias. That’s part of why these somewhat prehistoric-looking trees have such a visual appeal. They simply vary so much from the norm of what we generally see.

The IUCN Red Data List classifies Euphorbia confinalis as vulnerable to extinction. Causes for this concern are not specified but my guess is that climate change and deforestation leading to lowered survival success of young replacement seedlings might be factors in threatening their survival.

From Wikipedia, this photo was taken by Karen Wiebe on July 16, 2012 in the aforementioned Lebombo Mountains near the Olifants River, also at Kruger National Park. My four photos before this were also taken in Kruger near the Lebombo Mountains. I hope they continue to survive, as this is a rather unique species worth visiting should you be in that world-class national park.

I will also add one photo of the equally strange (and probably even more hostile) Euphorbia cooperi. This tree came with its own warning sign at the main entry gate of Kruger NP. With euphorbias, it’s almost always the milky latex that is the issue when a damaged plant bleeding latex comes into contact with your skin, eyes, nose, or mouth; but some people are sensitive enough that even standing downwind of it might result in eye and nose irritation. I’ll address the toxicity of euphorbias in another post sometime, especially that of the western E. virosa, but for now I’ll just leave readers with this single photo of E. cooperi. Meanwhile, I stayed safely in the car while this terrifying vegetable scowled at me, thinking its poisonous thoughts.