Some, like Pedilanthus tithymaloides [ped e lan' thus tith' e ma loi' dees], are common. It has eight recognized subspecies and one horticultural variety—the photographed 'Variegatus'. In India, the devil's backbone is a 'pest plant'. It escaped from cultivation and "grows profusely in marginal waste land* in northern and eastern India without any agricultural management...." (Srilekha De, et al, 1997)

Other members teeter on the brink of extinction. Pedilanthus pulchellus was described in 1917 and was not found again until 2003 by Mark Olsen. It survives as a small population on a mountain in Mexico. Pedilanthus tomentellus, is grown as an ornamental, but disappeared in the wild sometime in the 1980s. (William Cocke, 2003)

Pedilanthus flowers, variously described as shaped like slippers, red birds, ducks, or even cow skulls, are only open at the tip. The stigma and anthers are exserted—extending beyond the brightly colored petals. Most Pedilanthus are pollinated by hummingbirds. (Mark Olsen, 2002)

Like other members of the Euphorbiaceae, slipper spurges exude milky latex when broken. The latex acts as a deterrent; it is bitter to mammals and becomes tacky when exposed to air. It gums-up the mouthparts of chewing insects. The latex has been known to cause contact dermatitis in some individuals. Among other chemicals, the latex contains hydrocarbons—fuel.

Srilekha De, Archana Bag, and Subhendu Mukherji have examined the devil's backbone as a petrocrop, an alternative to crude oil and coal. Using petroleum ether, benzene, and ethyl acetate, the team extracted various weights of hydrocarbons from dried devil's backbone. The first extraction and distillation (soaking in petroleum ether and distilling the PE away) resulted in a waxy hydrocarbon with interesting properties.

When burned, it produces larger amounts of heat than any currently used fossil fuel. Coal produces slightly more than 7,000 calories of energy per gram, fuel oil about 11,000 calories/gram, and gasoline about 11,500 calories. But the waxy hydrocarbon from devil's backbone produces about 18,990 calories of heat per gram.

*Waste land in this sense means areas no longer tillable for farming or use as pasture.

(Compiled from: "Pedilanthus", Hortus Third, Staff L.H. Bailey Hortorium, NY State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University, Macmillan, 1976; "Scaring Up "Ghost Plants" in Mexico", William Cocke, National Geographic News, Mar. 17, 2004; "Potential use of Pedilanthus tithymaloides Poit. as a renewable resource of plant hydrocarbons", Srilekha De, Archana Bag, and Subhendu Mukerji, Botanical Bulletin Academia Sinica, 1997; and "The Pedilanthus Page", Mark Olsen, Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 2002.)