Euphorbia sieboldiana, the Siebold's spurge,[1] is a species of flowering plant in the spurge family Euphorbiaceae. It is native to eastern Asia, where it is found in China, Japan, Korea, and eastern Russia.[2] Its natural habitat is in grassy areas and forest margins.[2] It is a common species in Japan.[3]
It is an rhizomatous perennial growing to 70 cm tall. It produces small flowers in compact pseudoumbels. These lack petal-like appendages. This species can be readily identified by the horn-like projections on the glands of the involucre.[2] Blooming time is in spring and early summer.[3]
The plant is used medicinally in China, where it has the common name Langdu (狼毒花) lit. "wolf poison" (狼 lang "wolf" + 毒 dú "poison" + 花 huā "flower"). It shares this vernacular name with two other medicinal plants: Euphorbia fischeriana and the unrelated Stellera chamaejasme (family Thymelaceae) - which nonetheless has similar qualities, medicinal properties and uses, these being pungency, toxicity, cathartic, anthelmintic and expectorant activity, and topical use to treat ulcers and skin diseases.[4] [5]