Euphorbia marginata Pursh.

American Indian Names

        There are just a few indian names for this plant. The Omaha and the Ponca name has the same name for snow-on-the-mountain. They call it "naze-ni-pezhi."  The "naze" part means milk, and the "ni pezhi" means weed or herb.  The Pawnee name for it is "karioka" or "kalipika tsitskis." The "tsitsiks" means poison. They wasnt any information for the for word.

Description

         Snow-on-the-mountain is a forb. The leaves on it contain some milky juice inside of them. The flowers are white on the outside in and in the inside it≠s a green color. The roots of snow-on-the-mountain are very shallow underground. Also the stem is inflorescence and it reproduces from seeds. Sometimes the seeds are very hard to find they like exploding from the capsule when ripe.  

         The common names for snow-on-the-mountain are smoke-on-the-prairie, white margined spurge, variegated spurge.

Location and Habitat: This plant is found throughout Nebraska, but primarily in the central and eastern parts. Found on roadsides, floodplains, prairies, rangelands, and disturbed sites.  On the reservation I had found it by the powwow grounds.

Uses: Snow-on-the-mountain has no forage value for domestic livestock or wildlife and is usually considered poisonous. Mourning doves eat the seeds without being harmed. Snow-on-the-mountain is sometimes called cultivated as an ornamental and is a close relative or poinsettia.

This Page was last update: Thursday, December 21, 2006 at 10:28:29 AM
This page was originally posted: 11/9/06; 11:00:53 AM.
Copyright 2008 Plants of the Omaha Indian Reservation

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