Photo: (c) Florencia Luna, some rights reserved (CC BY) —CC BY

Buddha belly plant

Jatropha podagrica

UncommonSucculentEasyToxic

A succulent. Prefers bright indirect light. Wants a fast-draining substrate. As a species it wants water about every 14 days. Toxic to cats and dogs.

Buddha belly plant: how often should you water it?

~14days between waterings

That’s the interval our references converge on for this species indoors: roughly every 14 days between waterings, adjusted for your light and your season.

What we do and don’t publish

Why we don’t give you a date.

We publish the interval this species usually wants. We don’t publish a date for your plant — nothing here measures it. The interval is a starting point you adjust from what you actually log.

Start trackingLog a watering, and the interval starts adjusting to your home.

Guidance is curated against general horticultural references including the RHS, the Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder, and university extension services. Each field is either published or left empty — never estimated.

Care cadences

WWaterEvery ~14 days

CClean leavesEvery ~45 days

FFertilizeEvery ~60 days

RRepotEvery ~1095 days

Not established for this species: mist. We’d rather leave them empty than guess.

What’s known about this species

Light

ExposureBright indirect

Tolerates direct sunYes

Minimum light8050 lux

Daily light target10 mol/m²/day

Environment

Ideal temperature21 °C

min 12 °Cmax 29 °C

Humidity30–50% RH

Soil & pot

Drainagefast

Pot in a fast-draining, gritty succulent mix; let the soil dry out between waterings and repot only every 2-3 years as the caudex slowly expands.

Toxicity

ToxicToxic to pets

All parts contain toxic latex/sap (curcin, phorbol esters); not specifically ASPCA-listed, but toxicology sources describe vomiting, diarrhea, and skin/eye irritation from contact or ingestion.

A short profile, on purpose

1 of the fields we publish aren’t established for this species in the references we trust. Empty means unknown — not zero, and not a guess.

Suggest a correction

The species’ year

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

GrowingDormantFeedRepot

A typical year for this species in a temperate northern home. It shifts with your light and your latitude — we don’t track your plant’s season, so treat this as rhythm, not schedule.

Keep this species honest in your own log.

Verdalia holds the interval, your log moves it. Free to start.

Start tracking

Verdalia publishes species guidance curated from horticultural references. It does not measure your plant — you log what you do, and the intervals adjust to what you log. Suggest a correction