Oddly-shaped Jatropha podagrica
Published on: Sunday, December 29, 2019
By: Eskay Ong
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Beautiful flowers in close-up.
For instance, the main attraction of roses is in the beautiful blooms while the fan palm or royal palm are grown mainly for their foliage or and their trunks when they grow taller. When the ornamental is as big as a tree, it would probably attract a different kind of look, as its trunk of a stem would be eyed temptingly as kayu balak, which could be worth a big bundle if it is of usable grade.
In gardening, it is rare to be able to find a single plant in which all the different parts are equally attractive. It is impossible to find one where all parts are mouth-wateringly desirable, so to speak. If the tops such as the fruits and flowers are desirable, perhaps its bottom may not be so appealing such as in some plants where there is a tendency for the base to grow into a bulging thicket which traps a lot of leaf litter and thus become a den for field mice and other pests.
The characteristic deeply-lobed leaves are from the more mature plants whereas round leaves are from seedlings or young sections.
However, there is a plant which appears to look good from all angles. Its leaves are good looking, its flowers bright and attractive, its fruits of bubbly form, and its stems gorgeously although sometimes oddly shaped. Awesome, appealing and mouth-watering features indeed. Name? It’s Jatropha podagrica, a native of tropical America.
Although the plant is one of the easiest to grow, yet many people have missed out on it because it is not often seen nor is it widely available. This therefore presents a problem to the keen gardening enthusiasts who are out there ever ready to grab one. The problem is compounded by the fact that many people have yet to see what the Jatropha podagrica looks like.
The good news is that once you have spotted a plant, it is likely that a few seeds or even a few small seedlings on the ground may be had if the owner can be sweet-talked into giving up a few. This should not be a real problem as a mature Jatropha is capable of producing lots of seeds that drop onto the soil to germinate into seedlings.
Parts of the Jatropha Plant
Stem Structure – in the mature plant, a large bulb-like stem structure is formed and as it ages, it lengthens and gets fatter while turning into odd shapes that may be knobby, twisted or gnarled. There is nothing to indicate the shape of a particular formation or the direction it may take, except that the shape of bulging stems of one plant is never the same as that of another.
Left: The swollen stem appears to be quite similar to ginseng but it is never used the ginseng way.
Right: The tip of the stem is more tender than the rest of the plant, and may be easily damaged if handled the roughshod way.
Young plants grow up in an elongated and spindly manner with a little swelling at the top of the stem. In a way, the shape of such seedlings upon reaching about 15 cm in length, do appear to be like ginseng roots. Older or mature plants may reach up to a height of two metres with multiple branches all issuing from a single, much swollen stem.
It is common to see healthy mature Jatrophas with five to nine branches each with multiple leaves and clusters of reddish orange flowers of varying sizes.
In an unshaded plant, all the branches with their leaves should spread around quite evenly to give it a compact and bushy appearance.
A peculiar habit of such plants is that as the stem swells, its outer layer of cells begins to expand and crack, dry up and flake off to make way for the younger underlying cells that are expanding outwards.
The old skins are never tender pink or reddish unlike in many other plants where the young sections are almost always reddish in colour. Instead, the tough external layer is more of a pale, silvery brown to light greenish in colour.
Leaves – Jatropha leaves may be whole or lobed. In the very young plants, all leaves are whole and round in shape, while in the immature ones, leaves are mostly tri-lobed. In the old mature plants, while there are still many tri-lobed leaves, most of the leaves are five-lobed in structure. Leaves are borne in a cluster at the tip of the stem, which also happens to be the most sensitive and delicate section of the stem.
If this part is injured or damaged, a long period of time has to elapse for new shoots to appear. Occasionally, one or more bud-eyes may sprout at a lower level to grow into a new shoot each carrying its own head of foliage. Eventually a large thicket of branches is created which allows for the formation of a more attractive and very compact bush-like plant.
Left: A single Jatropha plant that is about 1.4 m tall after growing on the ground for about three years.
Right: The inflorescence is of a bright red to orange in colour that is always produced in abundance in such a tough and hardy ornamental.
Flowers – the flowers of the Jatropha are bright, reddish orange in colour, and are borne at the top of a long flower stalk. Individual flowers are very small, mostly measuring at a diameter of 0.5-0.8cm. The flower stalk itself grows out from the apex of the stem. Flowers usually come in dense clusters with many in different stages of growth and development within each cluster, much like an extended family all under one roof.
As such, it is not surprising to find in some clusters the presence of green and mature fruits, flowers and buds all existing side by side. Each flower is carried on little branches which is quite similar to the branches found on a deer’s antler, but only a few will progress to successfully form fruits and seeds.
Seeds – seeds are contained in a fruit pod in the same way rubber seeds are held within a hard and tough shell. Fruit pods measure about 2-3cm in diameter and they are green when young but turns pale and slightly brown when mature. When seeds start to mature, the outer fruit wall begins to dry up and shrink to reveal clearly the various segments that indicate the number of lobes within the fruit.
At full maturity, the fruit pod is sufficiently dry to be easily affected by small external changes in the condition of the weather, which may trigger off an small explosion thus sending the seeds flying all over the place. This explosive mechanism is a natural means of dispersion of seeds in order to ensure the continuous survival of the variety.
Left: A flower truss may simultaneously carry buds, flowers, green fruit pods as well as these about to eject their seeds.
Right: A freshly planted seedling in a 15cm pot. Should be ready for transplanting by the end of next year.
Growing the Jatropha is a real joy
As can be seen in the pictures, ornamental Jatrophas are nice plants indeed to grow. They are easy to grow on the ground, and much easier still to have them set in pots. They can even be conveniently moved indoors to decorate the sitting room but they need to be moved out on a regular basis to absorb some fresh air, dew and bright light. It is a good character of Jatrophas to have large leaves as they are easy to pick up and dispose of whenever they turn yellow and drop.
In the garden, Jatrophas enjoy less means to be vegetatively propagated compared with many other ornamental plants, although in the laboratory, many more things are possible.
Unlike in some other plants such as the hibiscus or bougainvillea where a piece can easily be broken off and taken home to be multiplied into numerous little plantlets, the Jatropha is not that easy to deal with. Under ordinary circumstances, it is impossible to produce new plants from its leaves, unlike the begonia, African violets and kalanchoes. Even the widely-cultivated sansevierias are so easy to multiply by just using leaf cuttings alone. This subject was discussed some time ago in this column.
And producing young plants from the stems or root cuttings of Jatrophas is almost always an impossible task in the garden, backyard, or in pots or boxes, except for the very skilled, or through the use of higher levels of skills in the laboratory such as tissue culture techniques.
With seeds, it is a different ball game altogether. It represents the easiest way to propagate the ornamental. They are available in abundant numbers in the fruit pods of mature plants, and when sown into pots or bags, they grow very vigorously and quickly.
A young seedling with round leaves.
Even without the need to put in any effort to collect such seeds, seedlings can still develop naturally from the seeds that are expelled on explosion from the dry fruit pods.
The question is, if the pods explode without notice, how then do you go about collecting the seeds? Well, it’s easy. Just tie a little bag made of net material over the fruits before they are dry and allow them to mature within. Let them have all the time they need to do their business, and when the seeds are ejected, they will just fall neatly all within the net. Make sure that the net used are of a fine gauze type such as those used to hold garlic or little red onions. Nets that are used to hold chickens are not suitable.
Seeds of the Jatropha are highly fertile, and they germinate very quickly the moment they hit water. So the best way is to sow them directly into polybags with a single seed per bag to allow you to select the best seedlings to be potted somewhere later on. Selection can be made when the seedlings are about 10-15cm tall, that is, at the 2-4 leaf stage.
Seedlings will grow into young plants with a stem height of up to 30cm within one to two years and flowering all the way. A good healthy plant can attain a stem height of 1.5-2.0 metres on the fourth to fifth year.
At this height, it is still possible to keep them in pots if they are of the 37-45cm diameter types. Bigger plants may be planted on the ground to encourage more branching, greater height and spread, bigger flower clusters, and of course, fatter stems.
With Jatrophas, it is an easy job all cut out for you. Considering that the new year atmosphere is in the air, it’s time now for a few early cuppas or bottles under the cool of a shade tree.
Happy New Year folks!
The writer may be reached at: [email protected]
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