Jatropha

van Welzen, P. C., Sweet, F. S. T. & Fernández-Casas, F. J., 2017, A revision of Jatropha (Euphorbiaceae) in Malesia, Blumea 62 (1), pp. 58-74 : 59

Jatropha L.

Jatropha L. (1753) 1006; (1754) 437; A.Juss (1824) 37; Baill. (1858) 294; Miq. (1859) 391; Müll.Arg. (1866) 1076; Kurz (1877) 402; Benth. (1880) 290; Hook.f. (1887) 382; Pax (1910) 21; Gagnep. (1926) 323; Pax & K.Hoffm. (1931) 160; McVaugh (1945) 271; Backer & Bakh.f. (1963) 494; Airy Shaw (1972) 283; (1975) 137; Dehgan & G.L.Webster (1979) 1; Airy Shaw (1982) 25; Grierson & D.G.Long (1987) 790; Radcl.-Sm. (1987) 343; G.L. Webster (1994) 103; Philcox (1997) 83; Govaerts et al. (2000) 1017; Radcl.-Sm. (2001) 288; Chantharaprasong & Welzen (2007) 343;Li Bingtao & M.G.Gilbert (2008) 268; G.L. Webster (2014) 125; Fern. Casas (2016) 2. ― Jatropha L. subg. Jatropha subsect. Jatropha : Dehgan & G.L.Webster (1979) 39. ― Conserved type ( Wiersema et al. 2015: 238): Jatropha gossypiifolia L.

Curcas Adans. (1763) 356; Baill. (1858) 313; Britton & Millsp. (1920) 224. ― Curcas Adans. sect. Eucurcas Baill. (1858) 314, nom. inval. ― Type: Jatropha curcas L. (Adanson did not provide a species name,the combina- tion Curcas adansonii Endl. ex Heynh. was made later).

Castiglionia Ruiz & Pav.(1794) 139. ― Type: Castiglionia lobata Ruiz & Pav. [= Jatropha curcas L.]

Mozinna Ortega (1798) 104;A.Juss. (1824) 35; Hook. (1841) t. 357. ― Curcas Adans. sect. Mozinna (Ortega) Baill. (1858) 315. ― Type: Mozinna spathulata Ortega [= Jatropha dioica Sessé ].

Loureira Cav. (1799) 17. ― Lectotype (designated by Dehgan & Webster 1979: 47): Loureira glandulifera Cav. [= Mozinna cordata Ortega = Jatropha cordata (Ortega) Müll.Arg. ].

Adenoropium Pohl (1827) 12. ― Jatropha L. sect. Adenorhopium (Pohl) Griseb (1859) 36; Müll.Arg. (1866) 1082; Benth. (1880) 291. ― Lectotype (designated by Dehgan & Webster 1979:39): Adenoropium gossypiifolium (L.) Pohl [= Jatropha gossypiifolia L.].

Zimapania Engl. & Pax (1891) 119. ― Type: Zimapania schiedeana Engl. & Pax [= Jatropha dioica Sessé ].

Collenucia Chiov. (1929) 177. ― Type: Collenucia paradoxa Chiov. [= Jatropha paradoxa (Chiov.) Chiov. ].

(Description based on Malesian species only) Large herbs to shrubs to treelets, monoecious, protogynous; taproot thick, long. Indumentum absent, of simple hairs or glandular. Stipules distinct or not, simple or split multiple times. Leaves simple, alternate, eglandular except sometimes for hairs; petioles not pulvinate; blades often palmately lobed to -partite with lobed segments, margin entire to undulate to finely serrate, with simple and glandular hairs on tips when serrate; venation at least basally palmate, bronchidodromous, anastomosing, veinlets reticulate. Inflorescences usually terminal, cymose, often corymbiform, with a pistillate flower ending every primary branch, more lateral flowers staminate; bracts elliptic or triangular, sometimes narrow, margin entire to serrate, becoming smaller upwards. Flowers unisexual, 5-merous, actinomorphic;sepals 5, often basally united, imbricate; petals 5, free or adnate, contort, glabrous, but in some species (partly) hairy inside; disc glands 5, alternating with the petals. Staminate flowers: sepal margin serrate to entire; petal margin entire; stamens 8 or 10 in two whorls, outer 5, inner 5 or 3, filaments free or partly united (especially inner whorl) in an androphore, anthers (narrowly) elliptical to triangular, (dorsi)basifixed, opening latrorse to extrorse via lengthwise slits, 2-thecate, these basally hardly to distinctly divaricate; pistillode absent. Pistillate flowers: sepals, petals and disc glands like in staminate flower, ovary (2–)3(–4)-locular, with a single ovule per locule; style short, stigmas 3, often resembling anthers and usually divided into a narrow unreceptive part (filament-like) and a receptive, almost completely split, broadened and thickened part (anther-like). Fruits globular to ellipsoid, capsular, slightly 3-lobed, dehiscing either only septicidally, only loculicidally or completely septicidally and partly loculicidally; wall thin, at most c. 1 mm thick. Seeds glabrous; caruncle 2- to multifid.

Distribution ― According to Govaerts et al. (2000) a genus of c. 190 species in the tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas (incl. Caribbean), Africa (incl. Madagascar) up to India. Several species are introduced throughout the tropics worldwide, five species cultivated in Malesia, often escaping and possibly invasive.