Euphorbia pulcherrima cultivars.
There are many cultivars that vary in their size, form, leaves and especially the bracts.
Most are small or dwarf plants suitable for a pot.
Some have only a few branches but most are freely branching and have more ‘flowers’.
The smaller ones are produced by applying chemical retardants to the roots and increased branching can
be induced by infectious agents such as viruses.
Commonly seen are dwarf plants up to 0.5 m and others around 2.5 m high.
There are some with the leaves flecked with silver.
There may be more bracts or ones that are wavy, curl up or are an irregular shape.
The bracts (often referred to as the petals) can be a single row or double or multiple rows.
The main differences are in the colour of the bracts.
Most, especially the doubles are a bright red.
Others come in many shades of red, pink, salmon, maroon, cream, yellow, orange or peach as well as white.
Some are blotched or marbled with a darker or second colour (e.g. red or pink with cream blotches or
pink with dark pink areas) or the veins may be a different colour (e.g. red veins on pink petals).
The border may be a different colour to the centre (e.g. cream or white bracts with a red edge or pink
with a white or cream edge).
A few have three or more, often pastel colours (e.g. pink, yellow and peach or pink, cream and green).
There are some with masses of curved red bracts that form a ball up to nearly 20 cm wide.
J.F.
