With alternative common names like mole plant and sassy jack you can use this engaging annual/ biennial to fill several animal slots or as a rodent (but don’t get your hopes too high on this latter possibility). Although it can be weedy or invasive it is also botanically interesting because tiny yellow-green to green male and female flowers are found on the same plant, and the flowers lack petals. All parts of the plant are toxic to humans, cats, dogs and horses especially the latex in the fleshy blue-green stems, and yet the plant was used in folk medicine as a purgative and to cure cancer and warts. The linear, blue-green leaves are attractive additions to the garden with their prominent greenish-white midrib. Other names for the plant are paper spurge and caper spurge but have no relationship to culinary capers.
Type: Annual or biennial
Size: 1-3′
Bloom Color: Green to yellow-green
Bloom Time: Late spring to early summer
Light: Full sun to partial shade
Soil: Average, dry to medium moist, well-drained
Hardiness: Zones 1-11
Photo Credit:Wikimedia Commons
Karen Meyers