Euphorbia peplis, Linnaeus, 1753

Mifsud, Stephen, 2018, Contribution to the flora of the Maltese Islands: Euphorbia subg. Chamaesyce and Euphorbia exigua s. l. (Euphorbiaceae), Phytotaxa 372 (2), pp. 153-166 : 160

Euphorbia peplis

Origin: Native to the south and central Europe and the Mediterranean-Macaronesian region ( Smith & Tutin 1968, Euro+Med 2006–2017).

Occurrences in Europe and the Mediterranean area: Throughout all the Mediterranean region and south Europe including the United Kingdom and Ukraine (Euro+Med 2006–2017). Considered as an alien occurrence in Azores and Belgium ( Hyde et al. 2017).

Habitat: Drift line zone of sand dunes sometimes escaping in sandy soil of neighbouring fields. This species is very rare and facing extinction in Malta where only two sporadic occurrences in two sites have been reported in the last 10 years, one at Ramla tat-Torri in Marfa, Mellieħa by Tabone (2007) and a new population observed by the author in Comino on June, 2012, both of which have not been seen again in the last six years. Maltese populations have been and are greatly disturbed with sand cleaning activities, over-trampling during summer season and illegal sand dune reclamation by operations related to touristic activities as for example that witnessed by the author at Santa Marija Bay, Comino during the end of Spring of 2017.

First record: Zerapha (1827) without any location, while Grech Delicata (1853) reports it from Marsaxlokk.

Flowering: June–October.

Morphological observations: The population examined from Comino shows typical morphological traits.

Chromosome number: 2n = 24 ( Benedì & Orell 1992)