TOOTH-LEAVED CROTON

CAUTION: This species may be toxic. A number of Croton species contain poisonous compounds, including 5-dioxyingenol. DO NOT INGEST. This species may very well be toxic to livestock.  

MEDICINAL USES: SEE CAUTION ABOVE - DO NOT INGEST.  That said, the species [not this variety per se] is listed as an antispasmodic, sedative, and analgesic. [2]
LIVESTOCK: This species may "likely be toxic to livestock." [13]
WILDLIFE: According to Forest Plants of the Southeast and Their Wildlife Uses, by Miller and Miller, this species in general, and not necessarily this particular subspecies, is reported as a moderately eaten summer forage by White-Tailed Deer in Oklahoma, and is "an important food of the Mourning and Ground Doves" [the seeds most likely]. [13] They go on to write, concerning Croton species in general, that "Northern Bobwhite and some songbirds use Croton seeds during summer." [13] "Crotons are preferred larval food plants of Goatweed and Gray Hairstreak butterflies." [13] 

NATIVE TO: "The range incudes the eastern United States west into Texas to South Dakota and north into Minnesota to New Jersey." [5] According to Regional Conservation, it is "possibly extirpated" from the Florida Keys. [8]
HABITAT: "Pinelands, scrub, beaches, hammocks, disturbed sites." [5] Also in "beach dunes, coastal grasslands, coastal strands, disturbed uplands, marl prairie, mesic flatwoods, pine rocklands, scrubby flatwoods, and shell mounds." [8]
DESCRIPTION: A "rough and hairy" plant. [13]
- HEIGHT: "To 60 cm. [24"] tall." [13]
- STEM: "Green with light green stripes." [13]
- LEAVES: Alternate. [14] "Leaves are oblong to lanceolate with irregular marginal teeth and glands at the base. The undersides of the leaves are stellate pubescent, and are not silvery nor brown-flecked in appearance." [5] "Brownish hairy beneath." [13] Deciduous. [14]
- EXTRAFLORAL NECTARIES / ANTS: There are two tiny extrafloral nectaries found at the base of the leaf blade, which are known to feed ants. In exchange for the ant's meal, these ants most likely help protect the plant from predators. "Two saucer-shaped glands just beneath the leaf margin base." [13]
- FLOWERS: "Racemes of white five-stellate flowers." [14] A "calyx of staminate flowers." [12] "May to October." [13] About 1 cm. long. [13]
- FRUITS: Drupes. [14] "The fruit are also pubescent." [5]  "Fruit and seeds June to November." [13]
- ROOTS: The root is said to be "pungently fragrant."
ETYMOLOGY: Croton is derived from Greek, meaning like a tick, referring to the shape of the seed. [3] Glandulosus refers to the two glands at the base of the leaf blade.
INVASIVE QUALITIES: In certain areas of the world, it is considered a weed. It is considered a serious weed in commercial crops including “corn, soybeans, cotton,” etc. [1]
SIMILAR SPECIES:
- CAPITATUS: The Wooly Croton, Croton capitatus, is somewhat similar, but has more silvery colored leaves and no deeply serrated leaf margins as glandulosus has. Capitatus is also native and grows wild in Florida from near Tampa Bay northwards.
- ARGYRANTHEMUS: The Healing Croton, Croton argyranthemus, is also native with no serrated leaf margins. It is found from near Lakeland northwards in the state.
- GLANDULOSUS VAR. FLORIDANUS: Croton glandulosus var. floridanus is endemic, growing wild from near Polk county southward. MORE INFO COMING SOON.