What Does a Croton Tree Look Like? A Complete Analysis of Its Physical Characteristics

The croton tree is a tree that grows widely in valleys, stream banks, wild fields and other places, and it is distributed in many parts of our country. So what does a croton tree look like?

1. What does a croton tree look like?

Evergreen tree, 6-10 m tall. Young branches green, sparsely covered with stellate pubescence or nearly hairless; two-year-old branches grayish green, with inconspicuous fine yellow longitudinal cracks. Leaves alternate, with triplinerved venation; petiole 2-6 cm long; leaf blade ovate or oblong-ovate, 5-13 cm long, 2.5-6 cm wide, apex acuminate, base rounded or broadly cuneate, with 2 glands near the petiole, leaf margin sparsely and shallowly serrate, both surfaces sparsely covered with stellate hairs, main veins 3; stipules caducous.

2. The Efficacy of Croton

Croton is the seed of the croton tree, grayish yellow on the surface, with a very faint odor, a faint and pungent smell, a certain toxicity, and a large amount of oil. Croton is pungent in taste and hot in nature, can enter the stomach and large intestine meridians, and has various effects such as drastic purgation of cold accumulation and expelling water to reduce swelling. It is usually used to treat adverse symptoms such as abdominal distension and pain and phlegm with water accumulation, and it also has a certain therapeutic effect on malignant sores and scabies in humans. However, this Chinese herbal medicine, croton, is highly toxic and cannot be eaten directly. It is usually made into croton frost before being used to treat these diseases in humans.

Croton can treat asthma and tracheitis in humans. During treatment, you can prepare an apple, use a small knife to scoop out its core, then take one croton seed and put it into the small hole, then cover the small hole with apple flesh, and then steam it in a pot. After the pot comes to a boil, steam for one hour, then take it out to cool, remove the croton and discard it, directly eat the apple and drink the soup, and the symptoms of asthma and tracheitis can be significantly reduced.

What we often call croton is actually not a bean, but the seed of this croton tree. If you want to harvest croton, you can plant croton trees appropriately.