Dicotyledon | Literature for Jatropha curcas
Wagner et al., 1990, 1999. |
Euphorbiaceae -- The Spurge Family | Bibliography |
Jatropha curcas | |
Common name(s): kuikui, kuku`ihi, Pake (Ni`ihau), physic nut |
General Information | ||
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Distribution | Native presumably to Mexico and Guatemala, now widely distributed throughout tropical regions as a medicinal or hedge plant and often escaping.In the Hawaiian Islands, naturalized on Maui, Hawai`i. |
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Habit |
Glabrous shrubs or small trees 2-5 m tall. |
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Leaves |
Leaves broadly ovate, 12-40 cm long, 9-15 cm wide, 3-5-angled or shallowly lobed, rarely subentire, sparsely puberulent when young, soon glabrate, petioles (3-)9-15 cm long, stipules minute, absent on mature leaves, entire. |
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Flowers |
Flowers in terminal dichasia, peduncles 4-10 cm long; male flowers with pedicels 1-5 mm long, calyx 2.8-3.5 mm long, petals greenish to yellowish white, obovate, 5-6 mm long, stamens (8-)10, filaments connate below the middle; female flowers with pedicels 5-9 mm long, elongating to 10-14 mm long in fruit, calyx 7-9 mm long, petals similar to those of male flowers, ovary glabrous. |
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Fruit |
Capsules ellipsoid, 2.5-3 cm long and in diameter, essentially unlobed, ± fleshy, eventually drying and dehiscent. |
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Seeds |
Seeds black, 1.5-2.2 cm long, beaked. |
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Chromosomes |
2n = 22, 44, 88 |
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