The centre of the visible, flat part of the Euphorbia maleolens plant is populated by tubercles. They are not all white-tipped as on the branches, some slightly protruding tips may never have produced leaves that left scars when dropping off.

These tubercles resemble an enthusiastic gathering of olive-green seals, rather than an apparently less used plant part (Germishuizen and Fabian, 1982; iNaturalist; JSTOR; http://www.llifle.com).