e-Flora of Thailand

Volume 8 > Part 2 > Year 2007 > Page 346 > Euphorbiaceae > Jatropha

2. Jatropha gossypiifolia L.wfo-0000219653

Sp. Pl.: 1006. 1753; Müll.Arg. in DC., Prodr. 15, 2: 1086. 1866; Hook.f., Fl. Brit. Ind. 5: 383. 1887; Pax in Engl., IV. 147. ii: 26. 1910; Merr., Enum. Philipp. Pl. 2: 449. 1923; Ridl., Fl. Malay. Penin. 3: 254. 1924; Gagnep. in Lecomte, Fl. Indo-Chine 5: 326. 1925; Airy Shaw, Kew Bull. 26: 283. 1972; Kew Bull. Add. Ser. 4: 137. 1975. Fig. 11: E-L.


Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.


Description : Shrub up to 3 m high, long glandular hairs all over, easily visible, sticky. Stipules filiform, ca 5 mm long, gland-tipped. Leaves: petiole 3–14 cm long; blade 3–5-palmatifid, lobes obovate, median one 4–10 by 2–6 cm, the lateral ones slightly smaller, base cordate, 3–5-nerved, apices acute, mucronulate, glabrous or subglabrous above and beneath, usually bronze-coloured. Inflorescences up to 14 cm long; bracts elliptic, up to 1.3 mm long, apex acuminate. Staminate flowers ca 8 mm in diam.; sepals elliptic, ca 2.5 by 1 mm, apex acute; petals broadly obovate to spade-like, ca 3.5 by 2 mm, apex rounded, glabrous, reddish-purple; disc-glands free; stamens 8, the 5 outer filaments united in the lower half, the 3 inner ones united for two-thirds. Pistillate flowers: sepals and petals twice as large as in the staminate flowers, otherwise similar; disc shallowly 5-lobed; ovary hirsute, especially towards the apex; stigmas ± free, erect, capitate, bifid. Fruits trilobed, ca 1 by 1.1 cm, smooth, sparingly hirsute to subglabrous, dehiscing both septicidally and partly loculicidally. Seeds somewhat compressed-ovoid to ellipsoid-ovoid, ca 7.5 by 4.5 mm, caruncle multifid.


Thailand : NORTHERN: Chiang Mai, Lampang, Nakhon Sawan, Tak; NORTH EASTERN: Sakon Nakhon; EASTERN: Nakhon Ratchasima, Roi Et, Surin; SOUTH-WESTERN: Kanchanaburi, Ratchaburi, Phetchaburi, Prachuap Khiri Khan; CENTRAL: Chai Nat, Lop Buri, Suphan Buri, Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya, Krung Thep Maha Nakhon (Bangkok); SOUTH-EASTERN: Chon Buri, Rayong, Chanthaburi; PENINSULAR: Narathiwat, Songkhla.


Distribution : Native to Tropical America, now pantropics.


Ecology : Naturalized in drier areas, often abundant on waste ground, along road sides, in secondary forests and in spiny scrub forests, sea level up to 700 m alt.


Vernacular : Lahung daeng (ละหุ่งแดง), sabu daeng (สบู่แดง)(Central); hong thet (หงเทด), sabu lueat (สบู่เลือด), salot daeng (สลอดแดง)(Peninsular).


Uses: Fruit used as aperient (Airy Shaw, 1973). It is a medicinal and poisonous plant similar to Jatropha curcas.


Main