Euphorbia obesa is a dwarf succulent from the Great Karoo of South Africa. It has a single, spineless, unbranched stem up to about 20 cm tall and 9 cm across, nearly spherical when young and becoming cylindrical with age. The stem is usually 8-ribbed, grey-green with dull purple transverse bands, and the rudimentary leaves soon fall. Plants are dioecious, bearing small cup-shaped cyathia near the growing tip in summer, and the capsules split explosively to scatter the seeds. Over-collecting once nearly wiped it out in the wild, and it is protected by South African nature conservation law and listed in CITES Appendix II (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species), so international trade in plants needs export and import permits, although seed from artificially propagated plants is exempt. The milky latex released from damaged tissue is poisonous and irritates the skin and eyes.
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