Whilst birding the bottom of the Raydah Escarpment I came across a large area of Euphorbia cactus. They grow up to one metre and have 3-5 angled thick and fleshy stems, with spines along the margins. They occur in southwest Arabia from Dhofar in Oman through Yemen to southwest Saudi Arabia where they mainly occur on rocky mountain slopes. Extracts of the plant is used locally for treatment of skin conditions such as boils, ringworm and skin ulcers and toothache. Care has to be taken when using as they contain diterpenoids which can cause intense inflammation of the skin on contact and have both tumour producing and anti-tumour activity.
