Kauaʻi record · kba_plant_euphorbia_tithymaloides
Devil's Backbone
Euphorbia tithymaloides
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About Devil's Backbone
An erect succulent shrub with green zigzag stems and alternate simple, smooth green leaves with pointed ovate blades and entire-to-wavy margins. Terminal flower clusters carry conspicuous bright-red, two-lipped bracts around tiny flowers. Its fruit is a capsule. Established wild occurrence warrants observations of occupied cover, reproductive plants and new recruits. These measurements can test persistence and spread. The reviewed accounts do not quantify an island-wide effect on Kauaʻi native vegetation.
Kauaʻi evidence
Generated media is not occurrence evidence. Proposed monitoring endpoints are not reported observations, measured effects or causal findings.
Names and classification
- Scientific name
- Euphorbia tithymaloides
- Common names
- devil's backbone · Japanese poinsettia · redbird flower
- Other names
- Euphorbia tithymaloides · devil's backbone · Japanese poinsettia · redbird flower
- Record type
- Species
Kauaʻi occurrence and status
- Kauaʻi occurrence
- Recorded on Kauaʻi
- Origin
- Introduced
- Conservation status
- Not yet assessed
- Evidence date
- 2026-10-07
- Evidence limits
- Island-level public occurrence only. Represent a plain green-leaved form; ornamental cultivar variegation is optional horticultural variation. The conspicuous red structures are bracts. Do not invent capsule colors or seed anatomy, or transfer foreign pollinator observations to Kauaʻi.
Habitat and ecology
- Habitats
- Not yet assessed
- Food and resource needs
- Not yet assessed
- Reproduction
- Not yet assessed
- Shelter
- Not yet assessed
- Growth form
- Shrub or subshrub; shrub
Threats and conservation
- Monitoring
- Occupied area and vegetation cover; Mature plants and new recruits; Reproductive plants and fruiting frequency. Proposed monitoring endpoints are not reported observations, measured effects or causal findings.
- Data gaps
- Current island extent and population trend · Measured local ecological effects
Process and seasonal context
- Seasonal timing
- Not yet assessed
- Seasonal description
- An erect succulent shrub with green zigzag stems and alternate simple, smooth green leaves with pointed ovate blades and entire-to-wavy margins. Terminal flower clusters carry conspicuous bright-red, two-lipped bracts around tiny flowers. Its fruit is a capsule. Established wild occurrence warrants observations of occupied cover, reproductive plants and new recruits. These measurements can test persistence and spread. The reviewed accounts do not quantify an island-wide effect on Kauaʻi native vegetation.