| Life form | Bush |
| Family | Euphorbiaceae |
| Origin | Malaysia, Australia, Polynesia, India |
| Ease of cultivation | Easy with small difficulties |
| The size | Most often about 50 cm in height, but sometimes reaches 1 m |
| Growth rate | High, up to 20-25 cm per year |
| Lifespan | Perennial |
| Temperature | In the summer: 68-71,6, up to 80,6 ° F, in the winter 59-62,6 ° F. At a higher temperature, plants are stretched and become less decorative. The temperature should not fluctuate greatly. |
| Humidity | High. At least 50%, put the pot in a tray with wet pebbles, spray the plant daily from the top. |
| Lighting | A bright place, where the leaves will have a better color. The plant tolerates even a small amount of direct sun, but on the southern window it requires shading. It grows best on the west window. |
| The soil | Fertile, weakly acidic: 3 parts of garden soil, 1 part of peat, 1 part of sand. Good drainage is required. |
| Watering | In the summer, there should be regular watering (2-3 times a week and more often), the soil should not dry out. In the winter, watering is reduced to once every 4-5 days. |
| Fertilizer | From spring to autumn every 2 weeks with liquid fertilizer. |
| Reproduction | The apical cuttings should have at least two pairs of healthy leaves (the lower pair should be cut off) planted in spring in a greenhouse (or covered with polyethylene) in a mixture of peat and perlite or earth with sand. It is desirable to use heteroauxin at a temperature of 77 ° F. Reproduction by seeds is rarely used. |
| Bloom | Blooms in the summer with nondescript cream colored flowers. |
| Transfer | In the spring, young plants grow annually. Starting from the age of three years, they are transplanted as the pot is filled with roots. You can only replace the top layer of the earth. It grows better in a close pot. |
| Features of care | In spring, you can cut off shoots to form the crown. The plant does not like drafts and gas combustion products. |
| Difficulties | It is affected most often by a mealybug, and also by a shield, thrips, a spider mite. In dry air and in the cold, the lower leaves fall off. The fall of the lower leaves is a natural process that accompanies the aging of the plant. The leaves become weak, fade or green with lack of light. The leaves are stained and wrinkled from the products of gas combustion. The leaves lose their brightness when there is a lack of light and they twist in a very hot and dry atmosphere. Leaves drooping and becoming wrinkled can be from excess moisture, sometimes it is accompanied by decay of the stem. New leaves are formed small and deformed in case of lack of nutrients and the need for additional fertilizing. Leaves may fall due to temperature fluctuations or lack of moisture. Leaves turn yellow or due to lack of food or from waterlogged soil. Leaves bloom from sunburn, when direct rays fall on the sprayed plant. |
| Air cleaning | – |
| Toxicity | Species of this genus can be harmful to animals and can have a poisonous milky juice. Skin contact with the plant can cause symptoms ranging from redness, itching and rash to painful blisters and skin burns. |
