Croton flavensL.

yellow balsam

WFO wfo-0000927970 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Croton flavens, photographed by Kurt Miller
fig. a Kurt Miller, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2022-06-03 / obs. 202991259
Croton flavens, photographed by Don Loarie
fig. b Don Loarie, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 58827839
Croton flavens, photographed by Don Loarie
fig. c Don Loarie, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 58832173
Croton flavens, photographed by stinger
fig. d stinger, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 43246890
Croton flavens, photographed by stinger
fig. e stinger, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 43246908
Croton flavens, photographed by stinger
fig. f stinger, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 43246916
Croton flavens, photographed by stinger
fig. g stinger, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 43246872
Croton flavens, photographed by stinger
fig. h stinger, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 43247509

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 10 botanical countries

Regions where Croton flavens is native: Aruba, Bahamas, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is. CubaDominican RepublicHaitiJamaicaPuerto RicoSouthwest CaribbeanTrinidad-Tobago ArubaBahamasWindward Is.
Native distribution of Croton flavens, 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
Aruba ARU SOUTHERN AMERICA
Bahamas BAH
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
Haiti HAI
Jamaica JAM
Puerto Rico PUE
Southwest Caribbean SWC
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Windward Is. WIN

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.

Also published as 33 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.

  • Croton abeggii Urb. & Ekman
  • Croton althaeifolius Mill.
  • Croton astroites Willd.
  • Croton balsamifer Jacq.
  • Croton cascarilla (L.) Benn.
  • Croton cascarilla Lam.
  • Croton excisus Urb.
  • Croton flavens f. richardii Griseb.
  • Croton flavens var. balsamifer (Jacq.) Müll.Arg.
  • Croton flavens var. genuinus Müll.Arg.
  • Croton flavens var. mucronatus (Willd.) Müll.Arg.
  • Croton flavens var. pallidus Müll.Arg.
  • Croton flavens var. rigidus Müll.Arg.
  • Croton flocculosus Geiseler
  • Croton jacmelianus Urb.
  • Croton leprosus Spreng. ex Griseb.
  • Croton martinicensis Urb.
  • Croton mauralis E.H.L.Krause
  • Croton mucronatus Willd.
  • Croton padifolius Geiseler
  • Croton portoricensis P.T.Li
  • Croton priorianus Urb.
  • Croton rhamnifolius var. antillanus Müll.Arg.
  • Croton richardii Willd.

and 9 more.

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. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. 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.