Euphorbia

At the bottom of my garden, near the shed (in one of the least promising growing areas therefore...) I have a patch of Euphorbia. It all originates from one little plant I bought a few years ago for £1 at a Farmer's Market.

Euphorbia is a tough, resilient plant that will tolerate some fairly challenging conditions, which is why it is where it is in my garden. It spreads quite rapidly by means of underground rhizomes a bit like Mint, so you have to keep it in check.

It flowers in the early Summer, and at this time of the year it is normally not something that catches my eye, but as most of you will have realised, now that I have taken up photography I have begun to see things in a lot more detail - always on the lookout for a decent photo. My eye lit upon the Euphorbia, which is beginning to form its buds for next year's flowers (strictly speaking, they're bracts, aren't they?), and I was struck by the multi-layer, almost symmetrical structure of its leaves, and the glossy - almost waxy - texture of those leaves. This is the result: