Appearance
It is a herbaceous perennial plant growing to 1-1.2 m tall, with several stems branched from the base. The stems are smooth, hairless, or slightly hairy. The leaves are small, lanceolate, 4-8.5 cm long and up to 1 cm broad, with a slightly wavy margin. The flowers are small, produced in umbels with a basal pair of bright yellow-green petal-like bracts. Clusters of the bracts appear in late spring, while the actual flowers do not develop until early summer. All parts of the plant contain a toxic white milky sap.It reproduces readily like by seeds that have a high germination rate and may remain viable in the soil for at least eight years. The seed capsules open explosively, dispersing seed up to 5 m from the parent plant, and may be carried further by water and wildlife. Leafy spurge also spreads vegetatively from the root system, which is complex, reported to reach 8 m into the ground and 5 m across, and may have numerous buds.
There are two subspecies and a hybrid subspecies:
⤷ "Euphorbia esula" subsp. "esula". Leaves broadest near apex; umbel bracts 5–15 mm. Throughout the range of the species.
⤷ "Euphorbia esula" subsp. "tommasiniana" Kuzmanov A.R.Smith; "E. virgata" Waldst. & Kit.). Leaves broadest at the middle; umbel bracts 12–35 mm. Eastern Europe, western Asia.
⤷ "Euphorbia esula" nothosubsp. "pseudovirgata" Govaerts. Hybrid between the above two subspecies.
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