This member of the Euphorbiaceae  family was described by Moritz Kurt Dinter in 1914. It is found in the north-western South Africa and in Namibia, growing in sand or grit  with little water and lots of sun. The caudex can grow up to eighteen centimetres in diameter and 35 centimetres height. The flowers are yellow.

The genera name; Euphorbia dates back to the first century BC, where King Juba II of Mauritania used it in a reference to his doctor, Euphorbos, and that name was kept as a generic name by Carl von Linnaeus. The species name after Margarethe Friedrich, a South African teacher and mesemb collector.