A shrub or small tree with a swollen caudex or trunk. Variable leaves, usually three-lobed with the middle lobe largest, also entire and oblong, several shapes often on one plant, hence the Chinese name changing-leaf coral flower. Separate male and female flowers on the same plant, bright red (also pink forms), five-petalled, about 2.5 cm across, in cymes held above the leaves; the ten stamens of the male flowers fused into two concentric columns, the outer only half as tall as the inner. Poisonous sap.
Habitat
Hedges, roadsides and gardens of tropical cities, drought-tolerant and sun-loving; in flower all year and one of the most planted red shrubs of South-East Asia.
Distribution
Native to Cuba and Hispaniola; very common on Singapore's roadsides and housing estates, grown in southern China (Guangdong, Hainan, Yunnan) and Taiwan, glasshouse-only in Japan.
Season and behaviour
All year in the tropics with hardly a pause; each flower lasts days and the cymes keep renewing.
Photography tips
These are the FilmAnalysis editors' notes, not content from the sources.
Bright red on green bleeds easily, so half a stop to a stop under, steadiest under cloud. The cymes stand above the leaves: side light at eye level for their layering. Butterflies visit, 1/1600 s. Several leaf shapes on one plant are worth a comparison frame. The sap is poisonous; keep it out of your eyes.
Photographic styles
Red stars on green leaves; a butterfly at the flowers.
Similar species
Jatropha pandurifolia (often treated as the same species or a variety, fiddle-shaped leaves); bellyache bush, Jatropha gossypiifolia (palmate purplish leaves); red ixora (dense tubular flowers).
Related badge
None yet. No validated photo recognition exists for this species, so no badge is tied to it: a name in the encyclopedia is not evidence in a photograph.
The illustration is original FilmAnalysis artwork. The photograph is from Wikimedia Commons; its licence and author are under it.
Why it is listed: this species comes from the Flower checklist (GBIF backbone and Wikidata verified). Names follow the GBIF backbone and Wikidata; the facts follow the sources below; photo recognition is not offered.
