Species
+

Euphorbia marginata Pursh

Ghost weed, Schnee-auf-dem-Berge (DE), Snow on the mountain (EN), Snow-On-The-Mountain

Climate known 63 photographs Cactus or succulent
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Euphorbia marginata is a small annual in the spurge family.

Text from Wikipedia, “Euphorbia marginata”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Euphorbia

Euphorbia is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants, commonly called spurge, in the family Euphorbiaceae.

Text from Wikipedia, “Euphorbia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Euphorbiaceae
Described by
Pursh
Native to
Colorado, Montana, Wyoming +14
Wild records
1281 in range· 420 open

At a glance

Warmest month
33°C
Jul, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
797mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 112 mm (CHELSA)
Light
17–44DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Euphorbia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to October in the northern hemisphere (April to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 797 mm a year, wettest June at 112 mm, driest January at 29 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 44 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -8.9 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Agaloma marginata (Pursh) Á.Löve & D.Löve; Dichrophyllum marginatum (Pursh) Klotzsch & Garcke; Dichrophyllum variegatum (Sims) Klotzsch & Garcke; Euphorbia bejariensis DC.; Euphorbia bonplandii Sweet and 11 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Euphorbia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to October in the northern hemisphere (April to October at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (578 mm of 797 mm) falls in April to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 21.9 °C against a yearly mean of 15.4 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to April.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 797 mm a year, wettest June at 112 mm, driest January at 29 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

797 mm a year at the habitat, 578 mm of it April to October. Wettest month June at 112 mm, driest January at 29 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 460 mm to 998 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 44 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 44 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 12, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -8.9 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -8.9 °C, the absolute minimum -17.2 °C, about 76 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 41.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -1.1 °C in January (across the envelope cells -8.6 °C to 6.2 °C), warmest day 32.6 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -8.9 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 55 to 57% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 10 °C in Jan to 33 °C in Jul; mean night from -1 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 797 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 811 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -17.2 °C and the 99th-percentile day 41.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost41.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)-17.2° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 17–44RH 55–57 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 811 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C10 / 2–1713 / 5–1918 / 10–2223 / 16–2627 / 22–2931 / 27–3233 / 30–3432 / 29–3429 / 25–3123 / 17–2616 / 9–2110 / 2–17
Night °C-1 / -9–61 / -7–86 / -3–1110 / 3–1516 / 9–1921 / 14–2222 / 18–2422 / 17–2419 / 12–2112 / 5–166 / -2–110 / -8–7
Rain mm29 / 11–5538 / 13–6163 / 29–8065 / 41–87102 / 62–132112 / 59–14073 / 50–11164 / 48–10478 / 38–9584 / 35–11251 / 17–7638 / 13–60
DLI19 / 15–2023 / 21–2629 / 28–3436 / 34–4138 / 37–4442 / 41–4744 / 42–4640 / 37–4133 / 30–3526 / 21–2720 / 15–2117 / 12–18
RH %57 / 52–6057 / 53–6056 / 51–5855 / 51–5757 / 53–6157 / 52–6055 / 51–5855 / 52–5855 / 51–5755 / 51–5857 / 52–5857 / 53–61

Each figure is the median across the 811 grid cells holding the 1183 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1095:1593 (35.225, -100.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -17.2 °C, 1st-percentile night -8.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 41.8 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 811 distinct grid cells holding the 1183 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1095:1593 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 35.00_-100.625, lapse-corrected -30 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 731 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeColorado, Montana, Wyoming, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast· introduced: Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Poland, Spain, Bulgaria, Romania, Baltic States, Central European Russia, East European Russia, South European Russia, Azores, Altay, North Caucasus, China South-Central, Hainan, Inner Mongolia, China North-Central, China Southeast, Taiwan, Vanuatu, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Québec, Illinois, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., West Virginia, California, Utah, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest
Kew's description“annual” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker29.651, -98.506 · in the densest population, 477 records (37% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1281 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 420 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 4 km away. 602 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 98 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1281 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Euphorbia marginataEuphorbia marginataEuphorbia marginataEuphorbia marginataEuphorbia marginataEuphorbia marginataEuphorbia marginataEuphorbia marginata

Photographs: (c) Michelle W. (鍾偉瑋), some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Jay Pruett, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Turner Brockman, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (5).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Euphorbia marginata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

ORIGIN AND EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF NONARTICULATED LATICIFERS IN EMBRYOS OF EUPHORBIA MARGINATA
Paul G. Mahlberg, Pritam S. Sabharwal (1968) · American Journal of Botany
Emissions of sulfur gases from various types of terrestrial higher plants
Ken‐ichi Kanda, Haruo Tsuruta (1995) · Soil Science & Plant Nutrition
Purification and partial characterization of a mitogenic lectin from the latex of Euphorbia marginata
Fiorenzo Stirpe, Federico Licastro, Maria Morini, Augusto Parente (1993) · Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - General Subjects
Ingol diterpenoids as P-glycoprotein-dependent multidrug resistance (MDR) reversal agents from Euphorbia marginata
Yao Zhang, Run‐Zhu Fan, Jun Sang, Yi‐Jing Tian (2019) · Bioorganic Chemistry
Habitat Distribution of Peromyscus leucopus within Prairie Woods
Marie Van Deusen, Donald W. Kaufman (1977) · Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science
Origin and Early Development of Nonarticulated Laticifers in Embryos of Euphorbia Marginata
Paul G. Mahlberg, Pritam S. Sabharwal (1968) · American Journal of Botany
MITOSIS IN THE NON‐ARTICULATED LATICIFER OF EUPHORBIA MARGINATA
Paul G. Mahlberg, Pritam S. Sabharwal (1967) · American Journal of Botany
Mitotic Waves in Laticifers of Euphorbia marginata
Paul G. Mahlberg, Pritam S. Sabharwal (1966) · Science
Irritant contact dermatitis from Euphorbia marginata
Osamu Urushibata, Kayoko Kase (1991) · Contact Dermatitis
Acanthamoeba spp.: "Opportunistic Pathogens"
John E. Ubelaker (1991) · Transactions of the American Microscopical Society
Irritant dermatitis due to Euphorbia marginata
Juan M. Pinedo, Victoria Saavedra, Fernando Gonzalez‐DE‐Canales, Pilar Llamas (1985) · Contact Dermatitis
New Alien Plant Species Recorded in South Lithuania
Zigmantas Gudžinskas, Laurynas Taura (2020) · Botanica

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Euphorbia 29 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 85 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.