Jatropha curcas (Euphorbiaceae) Barbados nut, bubble bush, physic nut, purging nut

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Jatropha curcas is a large shrub (up to over 9 feet tall) with small, yellow-green flowers, and poisonous seeds. This plant has potential for use as a biofuel producer.  Jatropha curcas is native to the Caribbean region. 

Species description or overview

Jatropha curcas information from NTBG
Information about Jatropha curcas is available from the National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG).

Taxonomy & nomenclature

Jatropha curcas information from the Smithsonian's Flora of the Hawaiian Islands
Information about Jatropha curcas--including nomenclature and synonymy, and status and distribution in Hawaii--is provided by the "Flora of the Hawaiian Islands" website of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Links from this page include descriptive information about the species, as well as worldwide distributional information and general information about the genus.

Jatropha curcas information from ITIS
The Integrated Taxonomic Information System ITIS provides authoritative taxonomic information on Jatropha curcas, as well as other plants, animals, fungi, and microbes of North America and the world.

IPNI nomenclature info for Jatropha curcas
Nomenclatural information about Jatropha curcas is provided by The International Plant Names Index (IPNI).

Impacts

Risk assessments

Jatropha curcas weed risk assessment for Hawaii/Pacific
A weed risk assessment of Jatropha curcas assessment for Hawaii/Pacific ranks this species to be "high risk" for invasiveness.

Weed risk assessment for Jatropha curcas (Florida) 
A weed risk assessment for Jatropha curcas for Florida is presented by The Nature Conservancy (Doria Gordon et al.).

Weed risk assessment for Jatropha curcas (United States of America) 
A weed risk assessment for Jatropha curcas for United States of America is presented by The Nature Conservancy (Doria Gordon et al.).

Images

Jatropha curcas images from PIER
Images of Jatropha curcas provided by the Pacific Island Ecosystems at Risk project (PIER).

Distribution

Full-text articles

Revised List of Hawaiian Names of Plants Native and Introduced with Brief Descriptions and Notes as to Occurrence and Medicinal or Other Values
Gon III, Samuel M. Ohukaniohia. 2008. Revised List of Hawaiian Names of Plants Native and Introduced with Brief Descriptions and Notes as to Occurrence and Medicinal or Other Values, by Joseph F. Rock Consulting Botanist, Board of Agriculture and Forestry Honolulu, Hawaii, 1920; transcribed and annotated by Samuel M. Ohukaniohia Gon III. Ethnobotany Research & Applications 6:405-442.

Other resources

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The Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk (HEAR) project was historically funded by the Pacific Basin Information Node (PBIN) of the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) through PIERC (USGS) with support from HCSU (UH Hilo). More details are available online.

The content of this page is based on information last generated on 16 October 2017 by PT. The template for this page was created on 15 March 2004 by EMS, and was last updated on 20 February 2006 by PT.