• Scientific Name: Jatropha curcas L.
• Ref: Sp. Pl.:1006. 1753
• Synonyms:
  • Curcas adansonii Endl.
  • C. curcas (L.) Britton & Millsp.
  • C. drastica Mart.
  • C. indica A.Rich.
  • C. lobata Splitg. ex Lanj.
  • C. purgans Medik.
  • Jatropha acerifolia Salisb.
  • J. afrocurcas Pax
  • J. edulis Sessé
  • J. yucatanensis Briq.
  • Manihot curcas (L.) Crantz
  • Ricinoides americana Garsault
  • Ricinus americanus Mill.
  • R. jarak Thunb.
• English Common Name: physic nut, Barbados nut, poison nut, bubble bush, purging nut
• Chinese Common Name: 麻风树/麻疯树 máfēng∙shù, 黄肿树 huángzhǒng∙shù, 假白榄 jiǎ∙báilǎn
• Japanese Common Name: ナンヨウアブラギリ [南洋油桐] nanyōaburagiri
• Family: Euphorbiaceae
• Genus: Jatropha
• Distribution: Cultivated for medicine. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan [native to tropical America; widely introduced].
• Photo: 06/21/2009, South China Botanical Garden, Guangdong

Shrubs or treelets, 2-5 m tall, with watery latex; bark smooth; branches glaucous-gray, glabrous, sparsely lenticellate, pith larger. Stipules small; petioles 6-18 cm; leaf blade rotund to ovate, 7-18 × 6-16 cm, papery, nitid green and glabrous adaxially, gray-green and along nerves puberulent to glabrous abaxially, base cordate, apex acute; palmate veins 5-7. Inflorescences axillary, 6-10 cm; bracts lanceolate, 4-8 mm. Male flowers: sepals 5, ca. 4 mm, connate at base; petals oblong, green-yellow, ca. 6 mm, connate to middle, hairy inside; disk glands 5, nearly terete; stamens 10; outer 5 filaments free, inner filaments connate in lower part. Female flowers: pedicels elongate; sepals free, ca. 6 mm; petals and disk glands as in male; ovary 3-locular, glabrous; styles bifid at apex. Capsules ellipsoidal or globose, 2.5-3 cm, yellow. Seeds ellipsoidal, 1.5-2 cm, black. Fl. Sep-Oct, fr. Oct-Dec. (Flora of China)

06/21/2009, South China Botanical Garden