PlantFiles: Mexican Shrubby Spurge, Red Spurge
Euphorbia cotinifolia

Beautiful, beautiful foliage, but requires relatively good soil and moisture. I planted it into the ground in clay dirt around September of last year where it promptly lost all its leaves around November when the temperature dropped to around 40 at night. I live in Los Angeles, CA. The bare branches (at least when it's small) don't look very appealing. It took a long time for the leaves to regrow probably in April or May, and I thought it had died. Slow growing and seems to be a plant better grown in a pot if soil conditions are not that good. I may dig it up and do just that.

we live in massachusetts,a firm zone 4. we have had our tree
for seven years now. it has reached a height of almost 12', before a good spring pruning. we love her so much,she is the talk of the neighborhood, when she is leafed out. she gets early morning sun and shade the rest of the day and her color is still vibrant and she flowers pretty freely. they do like a fair amount of water,but, we have her pretty root bound, and she still does well. we leave her outside til the first frost is due and then she goes down into our basement for her winter nap. we water her about once a month and bring her up as soon as she starts to leaf out. i have taken cuttings for my mom, who lives in florida and she has rooted them quite easily and grows her plants in full sun in central florida. hope this helps anyone wanting this beautiful plant-we consider it well worth the effort for all its beauty!

This is a fast growing Euphorbia that is also called the Caribbean Copper Plant. Can be confused with Cotinus coggygria (Smoke Tree 'Royal Purple') for those not familiar, but break a stem and get the milky sap, you will know it is a Euphorbia. The white flowers really look nice against the red foliage. In SoCal it can grow to 10 feet tall but is deciduous in all but the mildest winters. My plant lost a few smaller stems and defoliated 100% during the 28 degree freeze from Jan 2007. However; all large stems have shot out new growth since. So they can handle a 28 degree freeze and recover nicely.

This euphorbia's grows quickly from cuttings, overwinters nicely in a greenhouse and the maroon-red leaves look fantasic when grown in mixed containers.

The new growth is a satiny vibrant burgundy. Not evergreen or especially drought tolerant. It actually likes more water than most euphobias and responds with fast growth. And should be given plenty of root room if grown in a pot or it grows sparse. Hardy to at least 30 degrees. No pests-at least outdoors.