wood spurge

Noun

wood spurge (uncountable)

1. An erect, perennial spurge, native to Europe and the Caucasus, of species Euphorbia amygdaloides.
   • The English wood Spurge, hath diverse tough woody brownish red branches, two foote high or more, bare or naked of leaves, for a space next to the roote, and afterwards set up to the toppes, with many narrow and long leaves, yet broader than those of the Sea Spurge, and nothing so large as the next...1640, John Parkinson, Theatrum Botanicum: The Theater of Plants : Or, An Herball of Large Extent: Containing Therein a More Ample and Exact History and Declaration of the Physicall Herbs and Plants...
   • The Wood Spurge, seen so frequently during our country rambles, suggests by its spreading aspect a clever juggler balancing on his upturned chin a widely-branched series of delicate green saucers on fragile stems, which ramify below from a single rod.1897, William Thomas Fernie, Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure, page 532