Hi All,

Am looking for your advice on what is going on with my clients Euphorbia. The middle is hollow in a lot of the plant, but still firm-ish. ( No Mushy Rot)

Would also love to know exactly what these are, I continue flip flopping between a couple options

Thanks for your time and advice fellow planties !

The two Euphorbias in the vicinity are trigona and lactea. The best way to tell them apart is usually to look at the orientation of the branches. E. trigona branches grow upward not outward. They are parallel to the main stem, pressed up against it.

Now maybe in this low light situation the stems are weaker and floppier, and that explains the appearance. I don't know. In any case the care is exactly the same.

Those plants have reached the upper limit of what is possible given the light they are getting through that window. With tall Euphorbias and cacti indoors, the sun stops hitting the top of the plant at some point, and that's when they go south. To be honest I'm kind of amazed at how tall they are in the first place. That must be a bright window.

I can't offer much advice about rescue, I don't think there really is a good long term solution here. Given you are in the northlands, light is always going to be an issue for sun-loving cacti and succulents in the winter. I mean, you could arrange some kind of artificial light and maybe revive the possibilities, but that would be ugly and expensive and worst of all quite annoying to the humans sharing the space (otherwise it's probably not bright enough).

So maybe prune down to half the height, removing whatever branches are not conducive to the new size. And/or restart from a cutting, which can be done fairly reliably but only during the warmer and brighter months. I can advise there.

The important thing is to handle the plant with care when you cut or prune it. Wear gloves, do not touch the sap, don't get it in your eyes. Wash hands afterward. Prepare for a mess afterwards (lay down some cardboard or similar underneath to catch the drippings from cut parts). Once the sap is dry, it isn't nearly as dangerous.

I believe they are the two side by side are the same type.

I took them into my care to give them the love they need, however.. I disagree. If they can grow x feet in the wild.. in the correct indoor climate they could perform similarly.
The room that they are in the side by side photo is a south facing sun room with basically floor to ceiling windows up to the second floor. So I don't think lack of light is the issue here.

I appreciate your time and knowledge however, I am looking to understand what's going on insider her, so I can decide how to proceed. Is this what corking looks like on the inside? Do the hollow pieces become garbage or can they continue to be viable to the plant. A lot of this plant is like this, it's clearly got something going on.. but is beyond my knowledge!

OK, I see. I was making assumptions based on the first picture.

Corking is a much-used and generally not very specific term that I don't think applies here. Usually refers to the development of a hard, brown outer layer replacing otherwise green, healthy skin near the base of a plant. Somewhat normal with advancing age for some plants. Not necessarily associated with strong woody fibers, just the hardening and dying off of the skin.

What you've got there is just regular wood in the tree. With many/most tree-like succulents, the structural fibers do not usually develop right away. This takes time (years) and is not evident on the stems near the top of the plant. Go down a few years and this wood becomes increasingly evident, expanding in volume with advancing age, eventually nearly filling the stem.

Here are the stumps of two tree-like succulents, one a Euphorbia species that is much larger than yours.




The hollow interior is the result of wood not being present in that area. I think this is more or less normal. The hollow area tends to become smaller as the wood develops and fills the stem. I would just leave it alone. You can prune back the exposed part if you like so you don't have to see the inside.

So very cool! I love nature

So the places that are 'woody' will they produce new 'Normal' growth on top? Because some of the woody feeling pieces go all the way to the top.

The Strange part is that I have completely chopped up and sold most of the E. on the left, saw NONE of this going on inside lol!



Is this brownish exterior towards the bottom more of the corking people are referring to ?

Yes. I think so.

Branching ought to be take place even on woody stems, as long as the outer layer is still green and the plant has the will to sprout new growth. The health and viability of that layer is important because the branch starts there.

That said, younger stems will tend to respond faster and more prolifically to being topped, all things equal. But these Euphorbias respond really well to pruning.