Australian bottle plant - Jatropha podagrica

Common Name :	Australian bottle plant, Buddha belly plant.
Botanical Name :	Jatropha podagrica
Family :	Euphorbiaceae
Photo Taken :	Bangladesh

A tropical American plant that is known as Australian bottle plant, Buddha belly plant, Guatemalan rhubarb, etc. Botanical name of the plant is Jatropha podagrica. It belongs to the plant family Euphorbiaceae. From its native land the plant later spread into many other part of the world as an ornamental flowering plant.

Australian bottle plant (Jatropha podagrica) is a sub-woody shrub plant that can grow up to three feet in height. The base of the plant is swollen and looks like a bottle (or a belly of Buddha). That's why it got those funny common names. Leafs of the plant are palm like (or lobbed) with very long petiole. Leafs are not glossy and a bit larger.

Flowers are attractive red in color and blooms throughout the years as a cluster. Small flowers from the cluster are having five red petals and bract with yellow stamens at the center. Cluster forms at the top of erect stalk. Fruits of the plant is cylindrically round (typical Jatropha fruits). Seeds of the plant are poisonous (in fact all parts of the plant are).

Photos of Australian bottle plant (Jatropha podagrica) were taken from the following location of Bangladesh.
1. April 2014: Gulshan, Dhaka.


This article has written by Lonely Traveler,
for the blog http://icflora.blogspot.com/