Pronounciation: Yew-FOR-bee-a brac-tee-A-ta

Hardiness zones
Sunset 13-24
USDA 9 (with some protection)-11

Landscape Use: Textural and unique floral accent, specimen, sun and shade oasis gardens.

Form & Character: Stiffly upright, coarse and brittle, to sprawling especially in dense shade, tropical.

Growth Habit: Herbaceous perennial, semi-succulent, strongly upright to 4- to 8-feet tall, eventually basally clumping to nearly 6-feet wide. Tall lady's slippers grows leaves when cultivated in planting sites with regular supplemental irrigation, otherwise generally leafless.

Foliage/Texture: Glaucous green, alternate, oval, nearly sessile, cylindrical stems are glaucous green (photosynthetic); medium coarse texture.

Flowers & Fruits: Small, terminal, pale yellowish-green flowers, surrounded by attractive, large red bracts that look like a small shoe or the beak of a tropical bird, flowers attract hummingbirds; fruits are oblong and reddish.

Seasonal Color: Diminuative flowers during winter and spring, occassionally throughout the year.

Temperature: Cold tolerant to 28^oF, but will develop chilling injury in the form of reddened stems when night-time winter temperatures are consistently in the 30^o to 40^oF range.

Light: Versatile from full sun to full shade, prefers partial shade in Phoenix.

Soil: Any soil type.

Watering: Regular supplemental water is a necessity in Phoenix for best performance.

Pruning: Any amount of stems at any time can be removed depending on situation.

Propagation: Easy by stem cutting.

Disease and Pests: None

Additional comments: Tall lady's slippers is larger than its close relative Euphorbia lomelii, and is an interesting, semi-succulent accent shrub for small and narrow landscape borders where a strong tropical effect is desired.

Toxicological factoid: All species in the genus Euphorbia produce a milky sap called latex that is toxic and can range from a mild irritant to very poisonous.