I don't often post in this particular forum, as I don't have too many true tropicals that are not at least somewhat cold hardy, such as Windmill palm, and a few different varieties of Banana that are corm hardy here in my area / zone.

One of the few true tropicals I do have, is also my favorite plant, and its the Jatropha Podagrica. I have posted a few pics of it below. I have had this plant for 2 and 1/2 years now and it has done fantastically well. It was only about 8" tall w hen I got it, but it is now nearly 2 feet tall. It has always been healthy, and has produced blooms just about year round, and true to form, blooming more prolifically during the summer months, and not so much in winter. It has yet to lose ALL of its leaves during winter however. It usually holds one to three leaves during winter. Right now, its going though its big summer growth flush and has 8 leaves, with more on the way, and one blooming bloom spike with another on the way. While it blooms profusely, it has yet to produce any of the "popping" or "exploding" seed pods. One other thing I have found odd about this plant, is that it has stayed with just one singular trunk, and has not branched. I know that when they age / grow, they do tend to produce at least one or two more branches.

My questions about this plant are as follows: How does this plant pollinate? Do I need to have two plants ( one male, one female) to do this? Or does this plant carry blooms of both sex and one plants blooms can pollinate eachother? I would like to get some seeds of this great plant, but to date, I have been unsuccessful. I have attempted to research this plant, but I have found no thing on propagation other than it can be done via seeds or, some places say cuttings.

Secondly, can this plant in fact be propagated by cutting, and if so, where along its stem should it be cut, and, will cutting it force it to produce branches?

Thanks for any help!

There are 3 photos below. The first one was taken in August of 2006, the latter two were taken TODAY. You can see how much it has grown in the almost 2 years between photos.

Thanks again!

~ NPG

So anyone out there have more experience with them and can answer the questions I posed above?

I did some across a LARGE Buddah Belly down next to the Smithsonian Arts & Industries building (next to the Smithsonian Castle). They have a large collection of tropicals, palms, and cycads that they trot outdoors every year, and seems to grow every year. The one they have is rather large, about 4' tall and has several branches. It had many flower spikes on it, and on the very top flower spike, there were two seed pods that were still light green, but big. They did however have one other, much smaller plant, so it did not help to answer my question much.

It appears, from the few I have seen in real life in bloom, and from photos, that the seed pods only form where the larger central blooms are like in your pic. Those bigger blooms tend to open first. The smaller blooms up on the smaller coral colored branches dont seem to produce any pods. Maybe there are both male and female flowers on a single plant.

Mine has 2 flower "spikes" on it right now, one is in full bloom, the other one is just now starting to bloom, and the plant is putting up new leaves like crazy. Its definately been very healthy this whole time. The growth rate and flower production definitely speeds way up during summer. I just hope I can get some actual seeds from it. But as you say, the big central flowers usually just fall off before any seeds form, and the spike just kinda dies.

I got seed pods! So I guess my question is answered. These plants are in deed able to pollinate from the blooms of just one plant. Based on what I have seen, the flowers that produce the seed bods are the 2-4 larger flowers, that occur down in the axis of the "branches" on which most of the other flowers occur. The flowers that occur in these axis are typically much larger than the blooms at the tips of the branches. I guess that should be a good indicator of both male and female flowers on the same plant.

Now that I have got the pods, I just hope I can catch them right, before the explode the seed 10 feet away never to be found! Its my understanding that when the pods turn brown is when they are just about ready to pop. Does anyone know this for sure?

Anyway, here are a couple photos of my seed pods:

I was just wondering about updates from those of you who got seeds and planted them. How long did it take for them to germinate, and what exactly did you do to get them to germinate. I lost all of my first sets of seeds as I did not get to bag the pods in time. Im wondering if next spring I will find some baby buddah bellies coming up outside. I did however have 1 more seed pod that was later than all the rest, and that one exploded indoors and I was able to get 4 seeds from it.

what is the best way to get them to germinate, and how long should I expect this to take?

My plant that is pictured in previous posts, decided NOT to go totally dormant this winter. I brought it in when night time temps were dipping to around 35-40F, and it was fine. It did shed over half of its leaves, the older ones, but the newer ones stayed on, and it is still pushing up new leaves, as well as flower spikes, though both of which are considerably smaller than they were this summer. The leaves this summer approached dinner plate size, and the flower stalks were about 1 -2 feet long, where as now the leaves are about 1/2 the size they were or smaller, and the flower spikes are getting to around 6-8" tall.

I have been watering it much less, but it is in a south facing window and does get lots of sun for several hours per day.

Anyway, just wondering about how yours are doing?

~ NPG

When I know what's happening, I'll let everyone know. I'm sooo bummed. . . . .

To try and answer the poster directly above me, I think the caudex is larger on plants that branch. As you can see, the caudex on my plant is not really that large. I have seen some plants the same size as mine that were multi branched, and the caudex appeared to be significantly larger on those plants than on mine. I personally kind of like how mine looks as a single stalk/trunk. Anyway...

Here are the Photos:

I still think these should be much more popular than they are. They are fantastic plants!

Rigo

Thanks for the kind words! I really dont feel like I should take much credit though, because like I said, I really have not done much of anything special do it at all. That said, when I did repot it, I just put it in regular old Miracle Gro potting mix. I mixed in a slight bit of sand, but that was it. Nothing special. I fertilize it maybe a few times a summer with Miracle Gro as well. So really, nothing special, and I definitely do not fuss over it. If I happen to notice a dead or dying leaf or flower stalk Ill help it to fall off, but thats it. Fall is coming, so any time I am expecting it to start shedding most, if not all of its leaves. Last winter however, it kept about 2-5 leaves on it throughout the winter.

Rigo

Cheers.

Thanx for the info
Carmen

Look forward to seeing your photos!

What would you want in trade for seedlings?

I hope these come out ok whewww this plant has 3 branches

Jatophas growing in my street.

Yeah, the pot it is in has gotten rather small. It is not really a small pot, its just a tall/ big plant. I do need to pot it up again. Its seems to need a new pot about every 1.5-2 years. I potted this up in the pot you see it in, during the spring of 2008. This year once again it was outdoors all summer, sitting directly on the ground, and it had grown out of the drain hole and into the ground beneath the pot! However, it does not seem to mind the cramped conditions, as it has never had any problems.

As I sated in the original post, they are VERY easy to grow. As long as you have an east, south, or west facing window, it should do just fine, and will do even better if you can put it outdoors for the summer months. It will lose most to all of its leaves during late autumn, but it will continue to bloom throughout the winter. It is a reasonbly fast grower too.