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Toxic☠️ To avoid

🌵 Candelabra tree

Euphorbia candelabrum · Euphorbiaceae

🌍 Africa🏜️ Desert
🧠 To remember it"Looks like a cactus, bleeds like milk" — the white sap that beads at the slightest cut betrays the euphorbia, never a real cactus.
Candelabra tree — Euphorbia candelabrum

🔍 Identify it without mistakes

Succulent tree with thick, angled branches rising like the arms of a candelabra, sometimes forming true "cactus forests" in the rocky savannas of East Africa — even though botanically it has nothing to do with real cacti (absent from wild Africa), a textbook case of convergent evolution. Its milky white sap, released at the slightest cut, is extremely caustic.

  1. thick, angled branches (4-5 sides), succulent, rising in the shape of a candelabra
  2. abundant milky white sap that beads as soon as the bark or a branch is cut
  3. short spines arranged in pairs along the angles of the branches, resembling cactus spines
  4. overall giant cactus silhouette, even though the genus Euphorbia has no relation to real cacti (Cactaceae), which are not native to Africa
Size6-12 m
Floweringsmall, inconspicuous yellow-green flowers along the branches
Habitatrocky savannas, escarpments, and semi-arid areas of East Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania) and Southern Africa, often in dense stands forming "euphorbia forests"

⚠️ Not to be confused with

Cactus (due to silhouette resemblance, convergent evolution) (Cactaceae (famille))no true cactus is native to Africa, but the striking resemblance to a cactus leads some to underestimate the sap's toxicity, thinking they are dealing with a harmless succulent

To tell them apart: make a small nick in a branch: the candelabra tree immediately releases abundant milky white sap, whereas a cactus never produces this latex; this simple test ensures you never confuse the two despite their almost identical silhouette

💊 Healing with it

in traditional Ethiopian medicine, highly diluted sap mixed with clarified honey was used as a purgative, and in ointments for certain leprosy symptoms; the Ovaherero and Damara peoples of Namibia use it as arrow poison or to poison waterholes during traditional hunting

Level of evidence : traditional use — PMC — Pharmacological Significance, Medicinal Use, and Toxicity of Extracted and Isolated Compounds from Euphorbia Species Found in Southern Africa

⚠️ the sap is a severe skin and mucous membrane irritant, classified as a potential carcinogen (phorbol esters), and can cause temporary or permanent blindness upon eye contact; never use for self-medication

🪓 Other bushcraft uses

  • sap traditionally used to poison pond water to make catching fish easier (traditional fishing)
  • impenetrable living fences planted around homes and livestock enclosures thanks to its dense, spiky shape
Sources (2)

No entry replaces a certain identification in the field, or medical advice. When in doubt: don't eat it. If ingestion is suspected: poison control or 112/911.