Botany
· Erect. smooth, fleshy shrub or small tree, 2 to 5 meters high, growing to 30 feet in the wild
· Branches are green, fleshy, cylindric, clustered or scatterd, about 5 mm thick.
· No leaves except for a few, small, linear-oblong ones which soon disappear leavin the stems smooth and cylindrical, glossy green and pencil-thick.
· The involucres are shortly-stalked, clustered in the forks of the smaller branches.

Distribution
Found from norther Luzon to Mindanao.
Nowhere spontaneous.
Occasionally garden hedge.

Chemical constituents and characteristics
Euphorbon isolated from the needles, with 4 percent caoutchouc.
The latex yielded 75 to 82 percent resin, and 14 to 15 percent caoutchouc.

Parts utilized
· Roots, stems, latex.

Uses
Folkloric
· Heated root scrapings mixed with coconut oil applied externally to the stomahc to relieve pain.
· Poultices of stems used for healing of fractures of bones.
· Latex used for wound healing.
· The milky juice, in small doses, is purgative; in large doses, emetic.
· Milky juice also applied to itches and insect bites. Also used for ear aches, whooping cough, asthma. Also, used to remove warts.
· Poultice of roots used for ulceration of nose, hemorrhoids.
· Decoction of the branches for colic and stomach pains.
· The latex may cause eye irritation or blindness. Has been used as a fish poison.

Availability
Wild-crafted.
Cultivated.