Jatropha podagrica (Gout Plant, "Sangoaburagiri")

Japanese name: サンゴアブラギリ （珊瑚油桐）
Scientific name: Jatropha podagrica

[Overview]
An evergreen shrub about 0.5–1 m tall, sometimes 2 m.
It drops its leaves when exposed to cold or dryness.
When the leaves or trunk are damaged it exudes a toxic white latex, which can cause a rash on contact.
The trunk is fleshy and short, swollen at the base into a bottle shape.
The branches are thick and short, with conspicuous leaf scars.
Leaves are densely alternate at the stem tips and spread radially in all directions, about 10–30 cm in both length and width, palmately divided into 3–5 lobes with entire margins; they are thick, with 6–8 palmate veins.
The petiole is 8–10 cm long, thick and hairless, attached to the leaf in a peltate manner.
If the temperature is high enough, it flowers throughout the year.
Long-stalked cymes at the branch tips have vermilion-red to orange-red branches.
There are male and female flowers, which are small 5-petaled flowers of vermilion-red to orange-red.
The fruit is an elliptical capsule about 1.5 cm across, which turns blackish brown when ripe and bursts, flinging the seeds 3–4 m away.
The seeds are elliptical, about 1 cm long and smooth.

[Uses]
Although poisonous, it is used as a folk medicine.
The bark is used as a fish poison, and the seed oil is made into soap, lamp oil and biofuel.
It is also used for tanning leather and as a red dye.

[Cultivation]
Propagate from seed or cuttings, but plants grown from cuttings have trunks that swell less readily.
For cuttings, immediately wash the cut end with water or place it in water to rinse off the white latex, let the cut end dry, and then insert it.
When the fruit ripens the seeds are flung far, so once fruit has set, cover it with a bag or net.
To overwinter, 15 degrees or higher is desirable, but it can overwinter if brought indoors to a sunny place and kept on the dry side.
It prefers a sunny, airy, well-drained soil.
Take care not to overwater; from spring to autumn water thoroughly when the soil dries, and keep it on the dry side in winter.
It tolerates dryness well.
From spring to autumn, apply a small amount of slow-release fertilizer placed on the soil.
Scale insects can occur.

[Notes]
The Japanese name likens the inflorescence to coral and the leaves to those of the Aogiri.

View this page in Japanese (日本語)