Have you noticed the entrance to Cherokee Mountain Estates?  It is covered with these low-growing yellow flowers.  Seek told me that it is Cypress spurge.  I thought it was kinda pretty, so I took its picture.

 

When we got home, I looked it up in my wildflower books, checked Wikipedia, and made sure it really is Cypress spurge.  Yep.  All my sources look the same.

 

Here's what we need to know about this plant.  Its botanical name is Euphorbia cyparissias, same genus as Poinsettia.  You know that milky juice that oozes from broken poinsettia stems;  well this plant oozes that stuff too, and the book says it can cause dermatitis in many people.  SO DON'T TOUCH IT!!!  As the flowers mature, they develop tiny spines that can get under your skin and cause rashes and blisters that irritate for years!!!  NO REALLY, DON'T TOUCH IT!!!  YIKES!!!

 

For something so pretty, it sounds lethal.  So when you see it growing on the side of the road, just admire it from a distance.  Wave and keep going.

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!