Botanical Features of Jatropha Curcas

It is a small tree or shrub with smooth gray bark, which exudes whitish colored, watery, latex when cut. Normally, it grows between three and five meters in height, but can attain a height of up to eight or ten meters under favorable conditions.

Leaves: It has large green to pale-green leaves, deciduous, alternate but apically crowded, ovate, acute to acuminate, basally cordate, 3 to 5-lobed in outline with a spiral phyllotaxis, 6–40 cm long, 6–35 cm broad.
Flowers: The petiole length ranges between 6-23 mm. The inflorescence is formed in the leaf axil. Flowers are formed terminally, individually, with female flowers usually slightly larger and blossoms in the hot seasons. In conditions where continuous growth occurs, an unbalance of pistillate or staminate flower production results in a higher number of female flowers.
Fruits: Fruits are produced in winter when the shrub is leafless, or it may produce several crops during the year if soil moisture is good and temperatures are sufficiently high. Each inflorescence yields a bunch of approximately 10 or more ovoid fruits. Three, bi-valved cocci are formed after the seeds mature and the fleshy exocarp dries.Seeds: The seeds become mature when the capsule changes from green to yellow, after two to four months