• Scientific Name: Jatropha podagrica Hook.
• Ref: Bot. Mag. 74: t.4376. 1848
• English Common Name: Buddha belly plant, bottleplant shrub, gout plant, purging-nut, Guatemalan rhubarb, goutystalk nettlespurge
• Chinese Common Name: 佛肚树 fódù∙shù
• Japanese Common Name: サンゴアブラギリ [珊瑚油桐] sangoaburagiri
• Family: Euphorbiaceae
• Genus: Jatropha
• Distribution: Cultivated for medicine and ornamental purposes. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Yunnan [native to Central America; widely introduced].
• Photo: 06/21/2009, South China Botanical Garden, Guangdong

Erect shrubs to 2 m tall, with woody stem swollen at base or lower part; branches stout and short, fleshy, sparsely lenticellate. Stipules spiniform, persistent leaf scar large and prominent; petiole 8-10 cm, glabrous; leaf blade peltate, rotund to elliptic, 8-18(-25) × 6-16 cm, nitid green adaxially, gray-green abaxially, glabrous on both surfaces, base truncate or obtuse, margin entire or shallowly 2-6-lobed, apex obtuse; palmate veins 6-8. Inflorescences terminal, long pedunculate, branching short, red; calyx ca. 2 mm; sepals rotund, ca. 1 mm; petals obovate-oblong, ca. 6 mm, red; stamens 6-8, connate at base; anthers nearly as long as filaments; ovary glabrous; styles 3, connate at base, bifid at apex. Capsules ellipsoidal, 1.3-1.8 × ca. 1.5 cm, with 3 longitudinal grooves. Seeds ca. 1.1 cm, smooth. Fl. and fr. almost throughout year. (Flora of China)

06/21/2009, South China Botanical Garden