Species · genus Euphorbia · Euphorbiaceae

Pascuita

Euphorbia leucocephala Lotsy

Also known as: White Poinsettia

Growth habit

shrub or tree

Native range

Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Nicaragua

Euphorbia leucocephala — reference photo — no rights reserved · CC0

Cultivars of E. leucocephala

The named forms growers keep — each with its own page, each honest about how much we know.

No named cultivars catalogued under E. leucocephala yet. When growers document a stable, named form, it earns its own page here.

Guide

The species-level account. Cultivar pages build on this and say where they differ.

A Winter Bloomer

Euphorbia leucocephala, sometimes called pascuita or snows of Kilimanjaro, is a shrub in the spurge family grown for the small white-bracted flowers that cover its branches. Like other euphorbias it carries milky sap and holds its true flowers within small, cupped bracts rather than showy petals.

Source: RHS

From Mexico to Colombia

This species is native to a stretch of Central America and northern South America, from southeastern and southwestern Mexico through El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua down to Colombia. It grows naturally as a shrub or tree in wet tropical conditions, and it has since been introduced well beyond that range, turning up in places such as the Canary Islands, Cuba, Hawaii and India. It was first formally described by Lotsy in 1895.

Source: Kew

Care recipe

The species record — the baseline every cultivar inherits unless it says otherwise.

Care notes are early — not yet verified

Light: ai:claude-opus-4-8
Water: ai:claude-opus-4-8 (range 7-14d)
Humidity: ai:claude-opus-4-8
Soil: ai:claude-fable-5
Care: ai:claude-fable-5

Light

Direct sun

Water

≈ every 14 days

Humidity

Medium

Temperature

13–29 °C

Soil mix

Well-draining loamy mix

Propagation

Softwood cuttings rooted in warmth

Fertilizing

Balanced feed monthly through the growing season

Growth rate

Moderate

Flowering

White bracts in late autumn and winter, snow-like

ToxicityAuthoritative · species

Toxic to cats & dogs & humans

Euphorbiaceae produce an irritant milky latex that can harm skin, eyes, and mucous membranes if ingested. This is where toxicity lives: every cultivar of this species inherits it and none can override it.

Reference images

Every image credited. Licenses link to their deeds.

Sources: ai:claude-opus-4-8 · ai:claude-opus-4-8 (range 7-14d) · ai:claude-fable-5 · ai:claude-opus-4-8 (family inference)

Kept true by its growers

Every fact here carries its source. Grow Pascuita yourself? What you’ve observed — how it drinks, how it holds its color, a name that’s off — and a clear photo of your plant are exactly what keep this page honest. Contributions are reviewed before anything changes.