little 2-month budda belly.
new leaf growing!
baby budda belly! (jatropha podagricia)
here it is in all its glory!
with a couple little baby adenium obesum next to it.
cool plant, haven't heard of it before. does it flower?
isaac
thankyou...yes it does flower, several times a year. just copy and paste the name in the plantfiles section and they have some realy cool pics!
Cute! You grew it from seed Cody?
OMG...I just figured out what that little sprout was popping up in a pot! It's a Jatropha. I had one with a seed pod on it, and apparently they burst and fling! Wow, this was totally random !
Yes they bloom small red flowers Westraad. At least mine does, I'm not too familiar in that there might be other colors and types. The leaves grow fairly large. They are interesting plants. Periodically they will shed all of their leaves and look like a fat stick, then before you know it...the leaves re-grow...they are not fans of cold. I thought I lost the plant the first time it did that..but, it's part of the cycle.
Rj
Here are my baby Jatropha podagricas. They to just popped up (along with another mystery plant). For the longest while I couldn't figure out what they were then I saw those little fuzzy parts and realized that the seeds had probably dropped into the pot (which originally had a sedum which drowned this summer) from a nearby buddha belly.
Now to figure out what that ginger or canna looking seedling is.
I'm thinking this is the Budda belly...has red flowers.
Do butterflies like the flowers?
Anyone know where they are native? I'd guess a place with wet/dry seasons. But not a desert. Edited to add the info below, that I just googled---
JATROPHA PODAGRICA
Buddha Belly Plant
This is one of the coolest plants that we carry and almost anyone can grow it. Jatropha podragrica is grown for its swollen belly. You will also sees flowers almost year round, more in the warmer months of the year. It is a butterfly attractant. It is very easy to care for. Requiring not much water and a sunny location in a pot or in the ground in frost free areas. Does better with at least a few hours of sun. In the winter it will loose its large, lobed leaves but the coral red flowers will hold. You should reduce the water in the winter and don't fertilize until the plant wakes up in the spring. They will also produce seed pods that explode, launching the seeds several feet away.
FAMILY : Euphorbiaceae
ORIGIN : Guatemala
SIZE : 5'
LIGHT REQUIREMENTS : full sun/light shade
WATER REQUIREMENTS : let dry before watering
MIN. TEMP. : low 50's
FLOWER : all year round
This message was edited Aug 29, 2009 10:24 AM
Butterflies do love the flowers and they are drop dead easy to grow and care for.
just curious, why on earth do they call it 'buddha's belly'?
i checked some of the pictures in plant files, sure is a nice plant! but i have never seen it here in Mozambique.
Isaac
Look at Randy's photo above. His is a young plant but you can already see the swollen stem near the base. As the plant matures that swelling really gets fat just like a sitting budha's belly.
Oh, ok. now i get it!
I grow 3 different Jatropha and they are all easy to grow from seed. The multifida seeds sprout all over the ground around the mother plants. I try to collect the pods as they turn yellow before they fall to the ground.
On the budda belly, I put a mesh cover around the whole bract to catch the seeds when they fall off.
I tend to miss alot of the integerrima seeds but I have mulch under that one so they don't spout very often. They do germinate well in pots though. I like to start them from seeds so I can start them in standard forms.
wedding favor bags make great collectors for jatropha seeds and those of other plants too. They come in all sizes and are reusable. This is one site where you can get them but I am pretty sure there are others that are less expensive out there; just google 'wedding favor bags".
http://www.efavormart.com/organzabag4x6.aspx