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Description
The Spurge family, or Euphorbiaceae, is an immense group of plants encompassing everything from desert succulents (no, not succulent desserts), to Christmas poinsettias. What appear to be 'flowers' are unique structures known as cyathia, or infloresences surrounded by leaf bracts. Each inflorescence is made up of apetalous (lacking petals) male and female flowers which mature at different times. Euphorbia characias subspecies: wulfenii is a common garden variety, in flower at this time (in the Northern hemisphere). The cultivar pictured may or may not be 'Humpy Dumpty', I bought two plants labelled as such and they grew up to be quite different from each other, so either it's super-variable or one label was wrong. Or both were, which would suck.

HA, made you learn something.

You can also see the flowering structures in a later stage of development: [link]

Aaaand *Ilharess reminded me to mention that the milky sap of this plant is a toxic irritant. So as difficult as it is, please restrain yourselves from shredding the plant with your bare hands, then poking yourself in the eye, or scratching ...in places. Seriously though, wear gloves when handling.
Aaaaand ~BemusedBonnie points out a rather glaring error I made, virtual cookies for her!

Description
The Spurge family, or Euphorbiaceae, is an immense group of plants encompassing everything from desert succulents (no, not succulent desserts), to Christmas poinsettias. What appear to be 'flowers' are unique structures known as cyathia, or infloresences surrounded by leaf bracts. Each inflorescence is made up of apetalous (lacking petals) male and female flowers which mature at different times. Euphorbia characias subspecies: wulfenii is a common garden variety, in flower at this time (in the Northern hemisphere). The cultivar pictured may or may not be 'Humpy Dumpty', I bought two plants labelled as such and they grew up to be quite different from each other, so either it's super-variable or one label was wrong. Or both were, which would suck.

HA, made you learn something.

You can also see the flowering structures in a later stage of development: [link]

Aaaand *Ilharess reminded me to mention that the milky sap of this plant is a toxic irritant. So as difficult as it is, please restrain yourselves from shredding the plant with your bare hands, then poking yourself in the eye, or scratching ...in places. Seriously though, wear gloves when handling.
Aaaaand ~BemusedBonnie points out a rather glaring error I made, virtual cookies for her!