The weed that drives me bonkers

Weeds are a fact of life for a gardener. I try to stay on top of things, but I’m not obsessive-compulsive about weeding. However, there’s one weed that drives me bonkers: spotted spurge (Euphorbia maculata). It’s an annual that goes away in the fall and doesn’t come back until late spring. But when it does, it’s seemingly overnight — and it’s everywhere:

Spotted spurge (Euphorbia maculata)

It loves to grow out from under things so it’s hard to get to the center of it

It also loves to grow in the middle of desirable plants...

... like this Dymondia margaritae

Spotted spurge’s specialty is to pop up in particularly inconvenient spots:

Who wants to reach into this dyckia clump and try to pull out the spurge?

Or this silver cholla (Cylindropuntia echinocarpa)? I like it, but I try not to get too close to it

Spotted spurge is part of the massive euphorbia family. The Euphorbiaceae is the fifth largest flowering-plant family and includes members as diverse as the rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis), the world’s most important source of natural rubber, the Chinese tallow (Triadica sebifera), a widely grown ornamental tree, the castor bean (Ricinus communis), and of course the genus Euphorbia proper, which encompasses everything from the poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima), the woody spurges (like Euphorbia characias), the many cactoid euphorbias popular with succulent lovers, to countless pesky weeds like my behated Euphorbia maculata.

What all species in the genus Euphorbia have in common, aside from the milky sap, is their special flower structure. The flowers (called “cyathia”) are reduced to only the parts that are absolutely essential for reproduction. My pesky spotted spurge, which is native to the eastern U.S. but has spread all over the country, is a prime example:

Spotted spurge (Euphorbia maculata)

As much of a pest spotted spurge is, it deserves respect for how it’s evolved to maximize its chances of survival. The growth cycle from germination to flowering and seed production is just five weeks. Let that sink in!

Each plant produces thousands of seeds, which can germinate instantly if the conditions are right (soil temperatures of 60°F to 75°F or higher) or lay dormant for years. The seeds are tiny, no more than 1 mm (the thickness of ten sheets of regular printer paper stacked together) and have hairs that allow them to stick to anything from animal fur to clothing, even shoes, making it easy for them to hitch a ride into the big wide world.

Basically, once you have spotted spurge in your garden, you’ll always have it. That’s just how it is.

© Gerhard Bock, 2026. All rights reserved. To receive all new posts by email, please subscribe here.