garden croton

Description:

Codiaeum variegatum ("garden croton" or "variegated croton"; syn. Croton variegatum L.) is a species of plant in the genus Codiaeum, which is a member of the family Euphorbiaceae. It native to southern India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the western Pacific Ocean islands, growing in open forests and scrub.[1][2] It is an evergreen shrub growing to 3 m tall and has large, thick, leathery, shiny evergreen leaves, alternately arranged, 5–30 cm long and 0.5–8 cm broad. The inflorescences are long racemes 8–30 cm long, with male and female flowers on separate inflorescences; the male flowers are white with five small petals and 20–30 stamens, the female flowers yellowish, with no petals. The fruit is a capsule 9 mm diameter, containing three 6 mm seeds. The stems contain milky sap that bleeds from cut stems.[1][2] The garden crotons should not be confused with Croton, a cosmopolitan genus also in the Euphorbiaceae, containing more than 700 species of herbs, shrubs and trees.