Coral Tree

The bark and leaves are used as medicine for neurodermatitis, itchy skin, and skin eczema.

Shrubs or treelets, 2-3(-6) m tall; stems glabrous. Stipules divided into forked setiform, to 2 cm; petiole 10-25 cm; leaf blade orbicular in outline, 10-30 cm wide, green adaxially, gray-green abaxially, glabrous on both surfaces, margin palmately 9-11-lobed, lobes entire; venation pinnate. Inflorescences terminal; peduncle 13-20 cm; pedicels short; flowers dense. Male flowers: calyx 2-3 mm, lobes 5, rotund, glabrous; sepals 5, spatulate, red, ca. 4 mm; stamens 8; filaments connate at base; anthers elongate. Female flowers: calyx as in male; sepals 6-7 mm, red; ovary glabrous; styles 3, connate in lower 1/2. Capsules ellipsoidal to obovate, ca. 3 cm, glabrous. Fl. Jul-Dec, fr. Sep-Feb.

Cultivated for ornamental and medicinal purposes. Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Yunnan [native to tropical and subtropical America].

multifida: much divided

Glabrous eglandular shrub to 2 m, with milky latex. Leaves long-petiolate, not peltate, deeply palmately 10-12-lobed, the lobes narrow and irregularly lobed, arising from a cordate basal disk. Inflorescence corymbose, borne on a long peduncle. Flowers coral-red; female with larger petals. Fruit 3-lobed to pear-shaped.

Native of tropical America from Mexico and Paraguay

Jatropha multifida, called coral plant, coralbush, and physic nut (a name it shares with other members of its genus), is a species of Jatropha native to Mexico and the Caribbean. A garden plant, it has been introduced to Florida, and to many places in South America, Africa, the Indian subcontinent, China and Southeast Asia. Mildly toxic, consumption causes gastrointestinal distress.