Jatropha podagrica - Meet the Plants - National Tropical Botanical Garden Plant Database

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Taxonomy:

Jatropha podagrica (Euphorbiaceae)

Common Names:
Buddha Belly Plant
Australian Bottle Plant

Gout Plant
Bottle Plant
Nettle Spurge
Gouty Stalk
Tartogo

Classification:

Jatropha podagrica Hook.
Kingdom: Plantae-Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta-Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta-Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta-Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida-Dicotyledons
Subclass: Rosidae
Order: Euphorbiales
Family: Euphorbiaceae - Spurge family
Genus: Jatropha L. - Nettle Spurge
Species: Jatropha podagrica Hook. - Gouty Stalk, Nettle Spurge
(National Plant Database. 2004.)

Description:

Buddha Belly Plant is a shrub about 18 inches tall with stems swollen and knobby and twisted with bristled scars.

The leaves are leathery, orbicular-ovate, peltate, long-petioled, to 12 inches across, deeply 3-5 lobed with obtuse sinuses. The caudex can be up to 12 inches in diameter.
Cymes (flat-topped cluster of flowers in which the central or terminal flower opens first) are terminal, long-peduncled with red pedicels. Flowers are small, coral-red.
(Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M. J. 1992. The Families of Flowering Plants: Descriptions, Illustrations, Identification, and Information Retrieval.)

Geographic Distribution:

Jatropha podagrica is found in Central American, Southern Honduras and Northern Nicaragua where it was first observed and described by the botanist Hooker in 1848.

(Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M. J. 1992. The Families of Flowering Plants: Descriptions, Illustrations, Identification, and Information Retrieval.)

Dangerous/Poisonous:

The berries and sap of Buddha Belly Plant are poisonous.
(Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M. J. 1992. The Families of Flowering Plants: Descriptions, Illustrations, Identification, and Information Retrieval.)

(Information for this species compiled and recorded by Camelia Cirnaru, NTBG Consultant.)

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