Euphorbia damarana
species of plant
Euphorbia damarana also known as Damara milk-bush and locally as melkbos is a species of flowering plant native to Namibia.
Taxonomy
Euphorbia damarana was described by Leslie Charles Leach and published in Bothalia 11: 500. 1975.
Appearance
The plant consists of slender and grey stems growing up to a height of 2.5 meters. Yellow-brown capsules appear at the tips of the plant during the fruiting season. The plants may not bear fruit as individual plants are either male or female.
Toxicity
The plant is regarded as one of the most toxic plants in Namibia, but specific studies into its toxicity are not known. It has been reported that the toxic milky latex of the plant is capable of killing animals and humans except rhino and oryx who feed upon it. It has been reported that if you have an open wound and come into contact with the plant its poison could kill you. Another story implicated it in the deaths of 11 Oshiwambo-speaking miners at the Uis Tin Mine after consuming food cooked over a fire of Euphorbia damarana.
The public source identifies “Euphorbia damarana” as species of plant. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Euphorbia, damarana and species.
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Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 27, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q5851537. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1975.
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This entry incorporates text from “Euphorbia damarana” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.