Croton punctatusJacq.

gulf croton

WFO wfo-0000932104 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Croton punctatus, photographed by Abby Darrah
fig. a Abby Darrah, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-07 / obs. 204531454
Croton punctatus, photographed by Ryan Watson
fig. b Ryan Watson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 194538218
Croton punctatus, photographed by johnyochum
fig. c johnyochum, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 194147823
Croton punctatus, photographed by Luke Padon
fig. d Luke Padon, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 189512390
Croton punctatus, photographed by Michelle W. （鍾偉瑋）
fig. e Michelle W. （鍾偉瑋）, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 184615744
Croton punctatus, photographed by Ryan Watson
fig. f Ryan Watson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 177868214
Croton punctatus, photographed by Reid Hardin
fig. g Reid Hardin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 176423420
Croton punctatus, photographed by Tom Kennedy
fig. h Tom Kennedy, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 174316925

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 22 botanical countries

Regions where Croton punctatus is native: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Belize, Bermuda, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panamá, Venezuela, Venezuelan Antilles AlabamaFloridaGeorgiaLouisianaMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMexico SoutheastMississippiNorth CarolinaSouth CarolinaTexasBelizeColombiaCosta RicaCubaHondurasNicaraguaPanamáVenezuela BermudaVenezuelan Antilles
Native distribution of Croton punctatus, 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
Alabama ALA NORTHERN AMERICA
Florida FLA
Georgia GEO
Louisiana LOU
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mississippi MSI
North Carolina NCA
South Carolina SCA
Texas TEX
Belize BLZ SOUTHERN AMERICA
Bermuda BER
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Cuba CUB
Honduras HON
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Venezuela VEN
Venezuelan Antilles VNA

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.

Flowering 42 in flower of 115 examined

Peak flowering in Nov. Each bar is the share of Croton punctatus observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 42 of 115 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. One month has fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for it. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 11 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 disjunctiflorus Michx.
  • Croton furfuraceus Pers.
  • Croton maritimus Walter
  • Croton plukenetii Geiseler
  • Drepadenium maritimum (Walter) Raf.
  • Gynamblosis maritima (Walter) Baill.
  • Hendecandra maritima (Walter) Klotzsch
  • Lasiocroton prunifolius Griseb.
  • Oxydectes maritima (Walter) Kuntze
  • Oxydectes punctata Kuntze
  • Rottlera punctata A.Juss. ex Spreng.

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.