Euphorbia trigona, African milk tree

Euphorbia Trigona, or the African Milk Tree as it's commonly known, is a highly architectural and curious houseplant. Easy to look after, pest resistant and a fast grower means it makes the perfect specimen that adds interest to a sunny spot.

Like many in the Euphorbia genus, it's a mix between a cactus and a succulent plant but has traits familiar with both. It's easy to treat it like a cactus accidentally, which can cause problems for new owners.

Light

You'll find lots of conflicting information online. Some say put them outside and give them full direct sunlight all day long. Others say this will burn and damage the plant and will only tolerate a little sun even if grown indoors.

From our experience both pieces of advice are partly true. So our advice is as follows.

These are succulents and not true cacti, so intense direct sun isn't something your plant wants or will enjoy. Coming from Central Africa, they're well adapted and expecting to deal with heat and some sun though, so they do need either bright light all day or some sunlight for an hour or two.

You can also put them outside providing the location you pick for it gets at least some partial shade.

You should not suddenly move your plant into intense sunlight if it's been in a darker spot for a while, or you'll risk scorching. Get them acclimatised for a week or so by moving them into the sun for an hour or so a day then back into shade again, gradually increasing the time in the sun.

They absolutely do not do well in lower light settings. This plant needs good light levels and if you can't give this, a grow light will be required.

Watering 

Although it's considered to be a drought-tolerant plant, they're surprisingly quite thirsty plants, using lots of water and drying out fast in warm temperatures. Wait until the top inch or so dries completely, then water deep and well again and repeat when plant has dried out.

140mm, 200mm ,300mm pot size