This is an indoor plant I found at Home Depot. I got it because it was pretty, but I don't know what it is or how to care for it and I'm afraid that I might be killing it. It has these sort of thorny spikes at the base of the stems and unique two-petaled salmon colored flowers. Can anyone identify it for me?
it's a euphorbia milli. 'crown of thorns' is the common name. it's a succulent so it doesn't need watering too often and likes a well-draining soil and the soil should be allowed to dry out before watering thoroughly again. bright light - not in direct sunlight, though. if it came in that pot, you need to take the rocks off - they're probably glued down, too!! i'd repot it in an unglazed pot that has drainage holes and use cactus soil or cactus soil mixed with perlite or small stones/gravel (if you use stones/gravel, get something that does not have any coloring or any glazing to make it shiny).
Its a Euphorbia x lomi hybrid. A hybrid between E. lophogona and E. milii, of which there are now a multitude of different kinds now in cultivation. Usually incorrectly referred to E. milii but is actually an interspecific hybrid.
The true Euphorbia milii itself has several named botanical varieties, all of which are in cultivation. The botanical variety usually grown is E. milii var. splendens but the others vary from larger to smaller in size. The giant of the group is E. milii var. hislopii and the smallest is E. milii var. imperatae.
ahh...that explains why the leaves didn't look 'quite right' for milli even though the flowers do. thanks! funny...last night i went to pick up something from a freecycle offering...the person had two beautiful e. milli's sitting in the enclosed porch area. i commented because they were so large and very nice looking (and the flowers look almost exactly like this one). she commented that the one was about 100 years old (it had originally been her grandmothers). the other was up around that age too...
Yup. Some of mine are somewhere around 50, but the lady my grandma got them from said that the mother plants were pushing 200 - they'd been in her family for a number of generations.
