Wood Spurge (Euphorbia amygdaloides) grows, not surprising, in woods and it starts flowering long before the tree leaves start growing.
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Spurges, at least those growing in France, have some characteristics in common. If you break a stem or leaf, a white latex oozes. And most Sprurges have typical yellow-greenish flowering umbels.
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Wood Spurge is not an exception.
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Here a 'flower' in detail. Round petal-like structures form a kind of saucer under some unusual machinery. Those two green-yellow half-circles are not petals, Wood Spurge does not have them, but bracts. And the little red ball inside is a not yet ripe fruit. It carries still the rests of pistils, two green lines. Left and right of this fruit, under two half-moon shapes, new flowers begin to open. And those half-moons? They are nectariferous glands. On top of all of this there are some stamen with pollen.
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The rather blue-green leaves sometimes tinged with red look like they belong to another species.
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And when, at least, the trees start making new leaves, Wood Spurge does not stop immediately making flowers.