The fruits are very light and have a tuft of barbellate hairs (the pappus) on the top which aids wind dispersal (Craib 1997). The short, stiff hairs covering the ribs of the fruit, produce a mucilaginous substance when wet, which helps to anchor the fruit to the soil. The species is semi-deciduous in summer, producing leaves in autumn and flowers in winter, around May to late July. Because of the very thorny nature, Othonna euphorbioides is rarely grazed by livestock, but the plants are shallow-rooted and easily kicked out of the soil as livestock stumble over them in search of suitable grazing (Craib 1997). The sweet scent of the flowers suggests, as in the sister species Othonna retrofracta (Rowley 1997), that it may be pollinated by beetles.