Dog's Mercury
An 'Exmoor Ponies in Conservation' project
Dog's Mercury
Dog's Mercury
Dog's mercury (Mercurialis perennis),(genus Mercurialis), a member of a group of eight annual and perennial weedy flowering-plant species of the spurge family (Euphorbiaceae), native to Europe, Asia, and North Africa. Dog's mercury is malodorous and poisonous to livestock, grows wild in European woodlands. Its leaves are the source of an unstable blue dye. The clusters of small, green, nonpetaled male and female flowers are borne on separate plants; pollination is by wind.
