Spurge Family (Euphorbiaceæ)
Snow-on-the-Mountain; White-edged Spurge (Euphorbia marginata) is a large, bushy herb often cultivated because of its beautiful, white-margined foliage. The stem is very stout and branchy, and grows from 2 to 3 feet high. The leaves are dark green, large, ovate-pointed, and seated on the stem; the lower ones are quite similar in shape to those of the common Milkweed and are alternated on the stem; those near the end of the branches are crowded, opposite, or whorled about the stem; the terminal ones have the edges of the leaves more or less widely margined with white.
The flowers are rather small, grouped in clusters in the centre of the terminal cluster of margined leaves. The staminate and pistillate flowers are on different plants. The involucre is five-parted and has five white petals.
When broken both the leaves and stems exude quantities of a milky juice. This species of Spurge grows in dry soil from Minn. and Ohio west to Colorado, and is sometimes found in parts of the East.