Crown of Thorns is also known as Christ Plant or Christ Thorn. King Juba II of Numidia (present day Algeria) was the first person to find this succulent type plant, and he named it after his Greek physician, Euphorbus. The scientific name is Euphorbia Milii. This plant’s common name comes from the oral tradition that the thorns placed on Christ’s head before the crucifixion were made from the pliable stems of this plant, which can be intertwined into a circle. The flower is beautiful, but the thorns are prodigious. There is substantial evidence that the species, native to Madagascar, was brought to the Middle East before the time of Christ. What looks like a flower is actually a bract, or modified leaf.