Species
+

Jatropha gossypiifolia L.

Bellyache bush, Bellyache bush, Bellyache bush, Black physicnut, Cotton-leaf physicnut, American purging nut, Cotton-leaf jatropha, Purging nut, Red fig-nut flower, Wild cassava, Flaide

Climate known 70 photographs Cactus or succulent
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Jatropha gossypiifolia, commonly known as bellyache bush, black physicnut or cotton-leaf physicnut, is a species of flowering plant in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae. The species is native to Mexico, South America, and the Caribbean islands, but is currently spread throughout the tropics. It is declared noxious weed in Puerto Rico and is naturalised in northern Australia, including Queensland where it is listed as a Class 2 declared pest plant. It grows to 2.5–4 m (8.2–13.1 ft) high. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Jatropha gossypiifolia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Jatropha

Jatropha is a genus of flowering plants in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae. The name is derived from the Greek words ἰατρός (iatros), meaning "physician", and τροφή (trophe), meaning "nutrition", hence the common name physic nut. Another common name is nettlespurge. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Jatropha”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Euphorbiaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest +38
Wild records
864 in range· 495 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Sep, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1292mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 147 mm (CHELSA)
Light
31–38DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Jatropha, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (May to December at the habitat (not shifted)). Habitat rain 1292 mm a year, wettest October at 147 mm, driest February at 66 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 38 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 21.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Adenoropium gossypiifolium (L.) Pohl; Jatropha gossypiifolia var. typica Chodat & Hassl.; Manihot gossypiifolia (L.) Crantz.

Cultivation

Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Jatropha, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (May to December at the habitat (not shifted)).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (974 mm of 1292 mm) takes 8 months, May to December. Mean temperature moves 1.4 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; with a flat temperature curve there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1292 mm a year, wettest October at 147 mm, driest February at 66 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1292 mm a year at the habitat, 974 mm of it May to December. Wettest month October at 147 mm, driest February at 66 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 659 mm to 2474 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 38 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 38 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 24, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 21.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 21.7 °C, the absolute minimum 19.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 42.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 23.0 °C in January (across the envelope cells 18.3 °C to 24.8 °C), warmest day 28.5 °C in September (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 21.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 62 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 28 °C in Jan to 29 °C in Sep; mean night from 23 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1292 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 671 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 19.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 42.6 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°45°42.6° 99th-percentile day (undated)19.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 31–38RH 62–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 671 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C28 / 25–3228 / 25–3228 / 25–3228 / 26–3228 / 25–3128 / 24–3128 / 24–3228 / 25–3229 / 26–3228 / 26–3228 / 26–3128 / 26–31
Night °C23 / 18–2523 / 19–2523 / 18–2523 / 18–2524 / 17–2624 / 16–2623 / 16–2624 / 16–2624 / 18–2624 / 19–2623 / 18–2623 / 18–25
Rain mm76 / 13–27366 / 10–25381 / 10–26695 / 21–260124 / 24–292110 / 22–282106 / 18–279117 / 16–280135 / 17–291147 / 25–292137 / 20–24098 / 23–247
DLI33 / 28–3936 / 30–4038 / 30–4236 / 28–4333 / 25–4233 / 24–4334 / 24–4236 / 28–4136 / 30–4034 / 29–4132 / 28–4031 / 27–39
RH %63 / 56–6862 / 57–6862 / 57–6863 / 58–6964 / 59–6964 / 58–7064 / 57–6964 / 55–6964 / 55–6964 / 57–7064 / 58–7063 / 58–69

Each figure is the median across the 671 grid cells holding the 849 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1596:2128 (10.175, -73.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 19.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 21.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 42.6 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 671 distinct grid cells holding the 849 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1596:2128 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 10.00_-73.750, lapse-corrected -99 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 97 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Aruba, Bahamas, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Turks-Caicos Is., Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Argentina Northwest, Paraguay· introduced: Cape Verde, Burkina, Gambia, The, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Togo, Central African Republic, Zaïre, Angola, Mozambique, Assam, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Laos, Nicobar Is., Thailand, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, New Guinea, Queensland, Fiji, New Caledonia, Marquesas, Caroline Is., Marianas, Hawaii, Florida, Galápagos
Kew's description“shrub” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker17.13, -61.886 · in the densest population, 299 records (35% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 864 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 495 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 103 km away. 837 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 15 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 864 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Jatropha gossypiifoliaJatropha gossypiifoliaJatropha gossypiifoliaJatropha gossypiifoliaJatropha gossypiifoliaJatropha gossypiifoliaJatropha gossypiifoliaJatropha gossypiifolia

Photographs: (c) Ben Machado, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); (c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) scaup, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Jatropha gossypiifolia, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Characteristics and composition of Jatropha gossypiifoliaand Jatropha curcas L. oils and application for biodiesel production
Jefferson Soares de Oliveira, Polyanna M. Leite, Lincoln B. de Souza, Vinícius M. Mello (2008) · Biomass and Bioenergy
Jatrophone, a novel macrocyclic diterpenoid tumor inhibitor from Jatropha gossypiifolia
S. Morris Kupchan, Carl W. Sigel, M Matz, J. A. Saenz Renauld (1970) · Journal of the American Chemical Society
Jatropha gossypiifolia L. (Euphorbiaceae): A Review of Traditional Uses, Phytochemistry, Pharmacology, and Toxicology of This Medicinal Plant
Juliana Félix‐Silva, Raquel Brandt Giordani, Arnóbio Antonio da Silva-Jr, Silvana Maria Zucolotto (2014) · Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Understanding invasion history: genetic structure and diversity of two globally invasive plants and implications for their management
Peter J. Prentis, Dominique P. Sigg, S. Raghu, K. Dhileepan (2009) · Diversity and Distributions
Antibacterial and Antibiofilm Activity of Selected Medicinal Plant Leaf Extracts Against Pathogens Implicated in Poultry Diseases
Olasunkanmi Stephen Olawuwo, Ibukun M. Famuyide, Lyndy J. McGaw (2022) · Frontiers in Veterinary Science
In vitro anticoagulant and antioxidant activities of Jatropha gossypiifolia L. (Euphorbiaceae) leaves aiming therapeutical applications
Juliana Félix‐Silva, Thiago Freitas de Souza, Rafael Barros Gomes Câmara, Bárbara Cabral (2014) · BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Aqueous Leaf Extract of Jatropha gossypiifolia L. (Euphorbiaceae) Inhibits Enzymatic and Biological Actions of Bothrops jararaca Snake Venom
Juliana Félix‐Silva, T. S. de Souza, Yamara Arruda Silva de Menezes, Bárbara Cabral (2014) · PLoS ONE
Acetylcholinesterase inhibition by somes promising Brazilian medicinal plants
CM. Feitosa, RM. Freitas, NNN. Luz, MZB. Bezerra (2011) · Brazilian Journal of Biology
Hypotensive and vasorelaxant effects of ethanolic extract from Jatropha gossypiifolia L. in rats
Iracelle Carvalho Abreu, Alex S.S. Marinho, ANTONIO M. A. PAES, Sonia Freire (2003) · Fitoterapia
Inhibition of local effects induced by Bothrops erythromelas snake venom: Assessment of the effectiveness of Brazilian polyvalent bothropic antivenom and aqueous leaf extract of Jatropha gossypiifolia
Juliana Félix‐Silva, Jacyra Antunes dos Santos Gomes, Jacinthia Beatriz Xavier-Santos, Júlia Gabriela Ramos Passos (2016) · Toxicon

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Jatropha 4 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 153 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.