Synonym:
Pedilanthus tithymaloides.
English: Devil’s Backbone; Japanese Lady Slipper; Japanese Poinsettia; Redbird cactus; Christmas candle; Jacob’s ladder.
Clades:
Angiospermae,
Fabanae,
Fabidae,
Euphorbiaceae,
Stage 17.
Mythology: Snow white.
Content: toxic; euphorbol, a complex terpene and carcinogen.
Use: hydrocarbons, solvents like petroleum ether, benzene and ethyl acetate, comparable with gasoline.
BotanyShrub; perennial; succulent, erect.
DD: Scorpio.SourcesEncyclopedia of Tropical
Plants; Ahmed Fayaz.
Spoerke and Smolinske, Toxicity of Houseplants, 1990, p. 181.
Nellis, Poisonous
Plants and
Animals of Florida and the Caribbean, 1997, p. 182.
Neumann, Kumar, and Sopory, Recent Advances in Plant Biotechnology and Its Applications, 2008.
Potential use of
Pedilanthus tithymaloides as a renewable resource of plant hydrocarbons.