Botanical name: Astraea lobata    Family: Euphorbiaceae (Castor family)
Synonyms: Croton lobatus, Astraea palmata, Oxydectes lobata

Lobed Croton is an annual, monoecious and herbaceous plant with hairy and dense branches. The plant is erect up to 1 m tall, sometimes woody at the base with a long taproot. The leaves are alternate, with small stipules and palmately 3‐5 lobed. The lobes are inverted-lanceshaped to obovate in shape, tip tapering with toothed margins, hairy star-shaped to almost hairless on both sides in some cases. The inflorescence is a slender, in leaf-axils or at branch-ends raceme; with small male flowers in the upper half and female flowers in lower half. The flowers are regular, unisexual, yellowish green in colour, male flowers with elliptical sepals and inverted-lanceshaped petals while female flowers have linear- lanceshaped sepals. The fruit is a globular capsule, star-shaped hairy, green in color with three ellipsoid seeds. Lobed Croton is native to Mexico to Tropical America, naturalized in Peninsular India. Flowering: June-September.
Medicinal uses: In Nigeria, the fruit decoction of Lobed Croton is taken orally mixed with Vernonia amygdalina leaves and Macaranga barteri leaves as remedy for diabetes. In Senegal, leaf or whole plant is used as sterilizer or against mouth infections and whooping cough. In Togo, leaf juice is applied topically as remedy for eye problems and unconsciousness and the flower, leaf or root decoction is taken orally for pregnancy problems. In Venezuela, Lobed Croton is used as haemocatharsis and the entire plant is used as a hunting poison in the coastal interior of the Ivory Coast.

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The flower labeled Lobed Croton is ...