Jatropha Podagrica

This plant is also known by its common name the  Buddha belly plant or  gout plant.  It is rather exotic looking, with the broad odd shaped leaves sprouting  from top of  the gouty stem that is shaped like a Chinese rice wine bottle.  The flowers are orange colour and unlike any normal flowers., although attractive in its own way.  The green beans you see in the picture (below) are actually the seed pods. Once they ripen, the  beans will turn brown and eventually burst, spraying the seeds as far as they can go.  The baby plant will emerge soon after.  This plant grows easily and hardly need any care. Watering can be done  less frequently as the plant can withstand drought condition for some time.

The earliest memory I have of this plant was my mother used to plant it just by the side of the old house. It grew rather tall (maybe about  4 or 5 feet ) and seemed  it was like forever there, in my childhood  days  - solid and dependable. Nothing seems to shake it.  Perhaps I like to have this plant in my garden because of this childhood memory. I feel very comfortable with this plant around.   I love it when I spy this plant in other people's garden.  Since they propagate rather fast from the seeds, I find myself having to pull out the baby plants now and then otherwise they will be sprouting all the over the place.  At other times I cut off the seeds before they can ripen. The flowers bloom easily all year round.  Any first time gardener will find this plant easy to care for and since it grows fast, very rewarding to have. One can plant it in the ground or in pots. This plant is non fussy and adapts to its environment.

The plant can grow in a single stem or it might even branch out.  This plant grows well under direct sunlight, but the leaves are smaller and not so dense. However grown under partial shade the leaves are broader , plentiful and looks more exotic.  If one prefers a gouty stem, just keep trimming off the leaves., not to worry one won't kill the plant this way.  The bark on the stem is abit rough like, but the texture is nice looking.  The Buddha Belly (I wonder how it comes by this odd name), is a robust and tough plant to have in the garden.