African Milk Tree
Euphorbia trigona
A tall ridged column of a plant, easy enough to keep — but the milky sap stings, so it is handled in gloves.
Spacing & sowing
- Plant spacing
- 15.7 in
- In-row spacing
- 15.7 in
- Between rows
- 19.7 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
Growing
- Type
- Houseplant · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Sunlight
- Part shade
- Feeding
- All-purpose balanced
- Frost tolerant
- No
Through the year
- Mar–Dec Spring Growth
- Jan–Mar Spring Growth
Pests & problems
- Mealybugs Mealybugs tucked into the ridges and crevices of the stems
- Root & crown rot Root rot from watering too often
- Leggy seedlings Weak, stretched growth when the light is too poor
- Leaves dropped after a cold spell or a cold draft
- Milky sap that irritates skin and eyes — wear gloves for any cutting
Garden allies
Beneficial predators that hunt this plant's pests — grow their favourite flowers nearby to recruit them. companion plant
- Green lacewing Chrysoperla carneaHunts Mealybugs
Its bristly larvae — "aphid lions" — impale aphids, mealybugs, thrips, and mite colonies, eating hundreds a week. Adults feed on nectar and pollen from small open flowers and overwinter in hollow stems left standing.
- Hoverfly SyrphidaeHunts Mealybugs
Bee-mimicking flies whose legless larvae graze aphid colonies clean while the adults pollinate. A ribbon of shallow, nectar-rich flowers kept in bloom all season recruits wave after wave of them.
- Ladybird (lady beetle) CoccinellidaeHunts Mealybugs
The gardener’s favorite ally: adults and their alligator-shaped larvae each eat thousands of aphids, plus scale, mealybugs, and other soft-bodied sap-suckers. Grow flat, open flowers for the adults and never spray a colony that ladybird larvae are already working.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com