Cactus Corail Euphorbia Lactea

If you’re looking to add an easy-to-care-for plant to your indoor or outdoor garden, you might want to consider Coral Cactus or Euphorbia Lactea. A species of succulent, it can grow to more than 16 feet tall when planted in the ground outdoors and 2 feet when planted in a container; the size of a shrub or a small tree.

The Coral Cactus is not really a cactus, but two succulent plants joined together to form a beautiful “Franken-plant." Fan-shaped. Eurphorbia lactea. is typically grafted on top of a Euphorbia neriifolia or a cactus root stock.

Euphorbia Lactea is also known as ‘Cristata’. In my opinion, this cactus is one of the stranger ones out there. It pulls together in a way like corals would. Although the plant comes in many different types of color, all depending on how it cared for the most common colors are silver or blue-gray.

Coral Cactus The Coral cactus at first glance kind of looks like a lettuce (please don't eat this), and a type of coral reef...which is where it's name originates from. This plant that has been transfigured making it very unique, and is really an African succulent, rather than a cactus - although they have similarities.

Euphorbia lactea 'Cristata' is a popular crested form of Euphorbia lactea. It is a slow-growing succulent composed of fan-shaped branches arranged in an alternating, undulating pattern. The stems are green and attractively marked with whitish or lime green, irregular markings. This form is often grown grafted onto the base of Euphorbia neriifolia.

Because some varieties don’t grow roots well, the top of Euphorbia lactea Cristata is often grafted onto the base of another plant. The most common host is Euphorbia neriifolia. The combination of these two plants is named coral cactus and cleverly referred to as Frankenstein cactus. Types of Euphorbia Lactea

The coral cactus ( Euphorbia lactea f. cristata ), a crested form of mottled spurge ( Euphorbia lactea ), offers convoluted, fan-shaped green growth marked with silver. Recently, plant sellers have begun to graft coral cactus fans in a variety of colors onto the stems of other succulents or cacti. The resulting plants are called variegated coral cactus ( Euphorbia lactea f. cristata variegata ).

Coral and cactus in name only, the Coral Cactus (Botanical name: Euphorbia lactea Crest or Euphorbia lactea ‘Cristata’), combines two succulent plants to form one fan-shaped plant consisting of a crest (the coral-shaped part) and a cactus root (the Euphorbia neriifolia) underneath it. A cultivated succulent originating from India and Sri Lanka, it now grows naturally in many tropical and sub-tropical regions.

Euphobria lactea, the plant which forms the crest of a coral cactus. Source: graftedno1 With its origins in Africa, the Euphorbia genus is a surprisingly large family of over 2000 succulent plants. Commonly referred to as “spurges”, they’re known for their poisonous sap, called latex, which was once traditionally used as a purgative.