Thulin, M. (1993) Jatropha, Flora of Somalia 1: 293-301
PLants trees, shrubs, or herbs with tuberous roots, usually bisexual but with separate male and female flowers, rarely unisexual [species usually monoecious, rarely dioecious], with latex and with simple, sometimes glandular, hairs. Leaves alternate or clustered on short shoots, simple, usually lobed; stipules present, sometimes modified to spines, sometimes branched. Inflorescences cymose with a female flower terminating each primary axis and lateral units of male inflorescences. Male flowers: sepals (4-)5(-6), imbricate; petals 5, rarely absent, imbricate or contorted; nectary disks entire or of 5 separate glands; stamens 6-10 (rarely more), often in 2 whorls of 5+3 with filaments fused into a column. Female flowers: sepals and petals as in male flowers; staminodes sometimes present; nectary discs entire, 5-lobed, or of 5 separate glands; ovaries (1-)2-3(-5-celled) with 1 ovule per cell; styles entire or bifid. Fruits usually capsules dehiscing septicidally or loculicidally into 3, 2-valved units, rarely somewhat fleshy and indehiscent; seeds with caruncles.
Jatropha includes about 175 species and grows throughout the drier tropics and subtropics, extending into temperate North American and southern Africa. There are about 70 species in Africa, with a notable centre of diversity in northeastern Africa. There are 24 in Somaliland and Somalia, of which 10 are in Somaliland.
Key to the species of Jatropha in Somaliland and Somalia.
