Spurge Family
Snow-on-the-Mountain Euphorbia Marginata
The beauty of the Snow-on-the-Mountain is due to the white border of the leaves and bracts, and not at all to the flowers, which are reduced to tiny stamens and pistils. A field of these plants with their snowy foliage makes clear the reason for the common name. They may be found all summer in abundance in the clay soil of pastures and roadsides at 4000-7000 ft., but should be handled with care since the milky juice is poisonous. Where it touches the skin, it often causes itching and inflammation, accompanied with pimples and blisters very like those caused by poison ivy. This blistering action is so decided that the juice is said to be used to brand cattle in some parts of the West, as the scar heals more rapidly than one made by the branding iron. Honey made from the flowers is also poisonous, but since it is hot and disagreeable to the taste, it is not apt to be eaten.
Snow-on-the-Mountain has considerable value as an ornamental plant for the garden, and it furnishes some rubber, though not in sufficient quantity to be commercially important. Other species of Euphorbia, or spurge, were formerly used as cathartics and stimulants, but they are all too acrid for safe application, either externally or internally. The small species are sometimes used to cauterize warts, but other means are more certain in their effect and less likely to cause injury to the surrounding skin.