# Buddha belly plant

*Jatropha podagrica*

Uncommon · Succulent · Easy · Toxic

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?

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.

### 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.

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

- **Water** — Every ~14 days
- **Clean leaves** — Every ~45 days
- **Fertilize** — Every ~60 days
- **Repot** — Every ~1095 days

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

## What’s known about this species

### Light

- **Exposure:** Bright indirect
- **Tolerates direct sun:** Yes
- **Minimum light:** 8050 lux
- **Daily light target:** 10 mol/m²/day

### Environment

- **Ideal temperature:** 21 °C (min 12 °C, max 29 °C)
- **Humidity:** 30–50% RH

### Soil & pot

- **Drainage:** fast
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

Toxic · Toxic 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](https://verdalia.app/en/species/suggest?slug=jatropha-podagrica)

## The species’ year

- **Growing:** Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep
- **Dormant:** Jan, Feb, Nov, Dec
- **Feed:** Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep
- **Repot:** Mar, Apr

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](https://app.verdalia.app/register)

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](https://verdalia.app/en/species/suggest?slug=jatropha-podagrica)

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- [Русский](https://verdalia.app/ru/species/jatropha-podagrica.md)
- [Species library](https://verdalia.app/en/species.md)