Flowers appear singly on stem - yellow, red, white or purple. Skin irritant and vesicant. Ingestion causes ulceration of the mouth and severe gastroenteritis. Two leaves branching from the stalk with three lance-shaped leaflets at the end. Flower may be green, green striped with brown, or brown.
Berries are red.
Burning of the lips, mouth and throat. There are approximately 20 different species. They are perennial, summer or autumn flowering herbs with milky juice. They have erect, non-twining stems. The fruit is the familiar inflated milk-weed pod filled with numerous seeds, each bearing a tuft of long, silky hairs.