Thousands of nearly stone-free, sandy, circular patches that lack vegetation (sand circles) are found in stony landscapes (including desert pavement areas) of Namibia and adjacent northwestern South Africa. Their distribution is very similar to that of Euphorbia gregaria, E. gummifera and E. damarana. The aim of this study was to determine if these sand circles represent sites of former occupancy by shrubby euphorbia species in the stony landscapes. Extracts of the soil from within and between sand circles (matrix), as well as from beneath dead E. gregaria plants were compared to an extract of a living E. gregaria with 1H-NMR and PCA multivariate statistical analysis. The results clearly showed that compounds characteristic of E. gregaria were present inside the sand circles and soil collected from beneath the dead plants but were not in extracts from the matrix soil. Diameters of living aerial parts of E. gregaria plants and sand circles measured in Google Earth™ satellite imagery showed that the average diameter of the sand circles and euphorbias were not statistically different. The aerial parts of Euphorbia gregaria are very dense and accumulate wind-blown sand particles. The accumulated sand buries the original stony surface beneath the aerial parts. When the plants die, a nearly circular sandy patch remains in these otherwise rocky areas. Many dying euphorbias have been observed in these areas and the healthy population seems to be declining. Previous reports on declining numbers of quiver trees (Aloe dichotoma) in Namibia were linked to climate change and the same might apply to succulent euphorbias. Since the shrubby euphorbias leave a sandy circle ‘footprint’ in the stony landscapes after they die, these features could potentially be used to estimate former population sizes and distributions and serve as a possible indicator of climate change. Keywords: Sand circles, Desert pavements, Euphorbia, Namibia, Climate change, Fairy circles, Plant scars.