Astraea lobata(L.) Klotzsch

lobed croton

WFO wfo-0000340796 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Astraea lobata, photographed by Eduardo Luis Beltrocco
fig. a Eduardo Luis Beltrocco, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-03-08 / obs. 182211380
Astraea lobata, photographed by Eduardo Luis Beltrocco
fig. b Eduardo Luis Beltrocco, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 182211344
Astraea lobata, photographed by Eduardo Luis Beltrocco
fig. c Eduardo Luis Beltrocco, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 173526632
Astraea lobata, photographed by Sunday Berlioz KAKPO
fig. d Sunday Berlioz KAKPO, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 152536211
Astraea lobata, photographed by Alexis López Hernández
fig. e Alexis López Hernández, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 82622481
Astraea lobata, photographed by Alexis López Hernández
fig. f Alexis López Hernández, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 68103300
Astraea lobata, photographed by Alfredo F. Fuentes Claros
fig. g Alfredo F. Fuentes Claros, CC0 1.0 / obs. 58774574
Astraea lobata, photographed by ONG SOS Biodiversity
fig. h ONG SOS Biodiversity, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 55119905

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 34 botanical countries

Regions where Astraea lobata is native: Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Aruba, Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Cayman Is., Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Honduras, Leeward Is., Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is. Mexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestArgentina NortheastArgentina NorthwestBelizeBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastBrazil SouthBrazil SoutheastBrazil West-CentralColombiaCosta RicaCubaDominican RepublicHaitiHondurasNicaraguaParaguayPeruPuerto RicoTrinidad-TobagoVenezuela ArubaBahamasCayman Is.Leeward Is.Netherlands AntillesVenezuelan AntillesWindward Is.
Native distribution of Astraea lobata, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Argentina Northeast AGE SOUTHERN AMERICA
Argentina Northwest AGW
Aruba ARU
Bahamas BAH
Belize BLZ
Bolivia BOL
Brazil North BZN
Brazil Northeast BZE
Brazil South BZS
Brazil Southeast BZL
Brazil West-Central BZC
Cayman Is. CAY
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
Haiti HAI
Honduras HON
Leeward Is. LEE
Netherlands Antilles NLA
Nicaragua NIC
Paraguay PAR
Peru PER
Puerto Rico PUE
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Venezuela VEN
Venezuelan Antilles VNA
Windward Is. WIN
Mexico Central MXC NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 223 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 7.8 °C 19.7 °C 24.2 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 27.4 °C 30.4 °C 36.1 °C
Annual rainfall 711 mm 1,268 mm 2,344 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 9 mm 94 mm 266 mm

It is barely found anywhere that freezes. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 223 research-grade observations of Astraea lobata that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 18 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Astraea palmata Klotzsch
  • Astraea seemannii Klotzsch
  • Croton courteti Beille
  • Croton decorsei Beille
  • Croton leiocarpus Bartl.
  • Croton lobatus L.
  • Croton lobatus f. crispus Müll.Arg.
  • Croton lobatus f. gracilis Müll.Arg.
  • Croton lobatus var. genuinus Müll.Arg.
  • Croton lobatus var. intermedius Müll.Arg.
  • Croton lobatus var. palmatus Müll.Arg.
  • Croton lobatus var. seemannii (Klotzsch ex Seem.) Müll.Arg.
  • Croton lobatus var. sericeus Müll.Arg.
  • Croton mocinoi Radcl.-Sm. & Govaerts
  • Croton trilobatus Willd.
  • Croton trilobatus Sessé & Moc.
  • Croton trilobatus Sessé & Moc.
  • Oxydectes lobata (L.) Kuntze

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol CRLO5. public domain. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.