Wood spurge (Euphorbia amygloides)

Dear Readers, I do love a spurge/Euphorbia – few plants can survive in the dry shade under trees, but this one seems to take it all in its stride. The Wood Spurge in the photo above was found in a hornbeam/oak wood in Essex, but the plant is fairly common across the UK. Wood spurge is an indicator of ancient woodland – it spreads slowly by rhizomes, so if you see it it means that the wood has been there for long enough for the plant to develop. You’ll often see it alongside wood anemones, bluebells and other woodland plants.

It is also a popular garden plant, where the subspecies Robbaie is often planted (also known as Mrs Robb’s Bonnet), so if you find any very vigorous patches of the plant, it’s worth checking out the leaves – they’re very hairy on the underside in the wild plant, hairless on the ‘domesticated’ one. Apparently, Robbaie was discovered by Victorian adventurer Mary Anne Robb whilst she was attending a wedding in Istanbul in 1891 – she liked it so much that, in that grand Victorian way, she dug some up and transported it home in the box usually reserved for her best hat, hence the name.

Wild Wood Spurge (Euphorbia amygdaloides) Photo by By Rasbak – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=134648

All spurges produce a white, latex-like sap which can be very irritating to the skin (and more especially the eyes), so it’s worth wearing gloves and being careful if you suddenly have an urge to handle one. I notice that in the photo above, the plant is called ‘Amandelwolfsmelk’, which I think roughly translates as ‘almond wolf’s milk’. In the UK, some of the vernacular names include ‘Deer’s Milk’, ‘Devil’s Cup and Saucer’ and ‘Virgin Mary’s Nipple’, which just goes to show how imaginative our ancestors were. There seems to be some belief that the sap can be used to remove warts, hence yet another name, ‘Wart Weed’. The name ‘spurge’ is, as you might have guessed, related to ‘purge’, and various Euphorbias have been used as purgatives. 

Now, you might think that a plant with such unpleasant sap would be a no-go for caterpillars, but in fact the caterpillar of the Drab Looper moth feeds only on wood spurge, and the descriptively named Double Square-spot moth has been ‘spotted’ (sorry) also feeding on Wood Spurge.

Drab Looper (Minoa murinata) Photo by By Siga – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4562395

Double Square-spot (Xestia triangulum) Photo by By Fvlamoen – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2198462

The most impressive moth to be found on Wood Spurge is the Spurge Hawk Moth – at the moment, the moth is an immigrant to the UK, which lays its eggs on spurges. The caterpillars pupate underground over the winter, but currently they don’t survive the cold conditions. With global warming, though, who knows? The caterpillar is spectacular, and pretty much unmistakable.

Spurge Hawkmoth (Hyles euphorbiae) Photo by By jean-pierre Hamon – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2890447

Spurge Hawk Moth caterpillar (Photo by By Daniel Schwen – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2502284)

And goodness, the Wood Spurge has its own poem, by Dante Gabriel Rossetti no less. It was written at a time when, apparently, the poet was in turmoil over his relationships with women. It feels a little overwrought to me, but at the same time I do recognise that sudden preoccupation and focus with something that seems almost insignificant, as if grief is overwhelming and we need something, anything, to hang on to. See what you think.

The Woodspurge

By Dante Gabriel Rossetti

The wind flapp’d loose, the wind was still,
Shaken out dead from tree and hill:
I had walk’d on at the wind’s will,—
I sat now, for the wind was still.

Between my knees my forehead was,—
My lips, drawn in, said not Alas!
My hair was over in the grass,
My naked ears heard the day pass.

My eyes, wide open, had the run
Of some ten weeds to fix upon;
Among those few, out of the sun,
The woodspurge flower’d, three cups in one.

From perfect grief there need not be
Wisdom or even memory:
One thing then learnt remains to me,—
The woodspurge has a cup of three.

Photo by By Björn S… – Wood spurge – Euphorbia amygdaloides, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=40042727