It produces Indian corn and other cereals and potatoes in the colder regions, and tropical fruits, sweet potatoes and mandioca (Jatropha manihot, L.) in the low tropical valleys.
Other rubber-producing trees are the manicoba (Jatropha Glasiovii) of Ceara, and the mangabeira (Hancornia speciosa), of the central upland regions.
In some flowers, as Jatropha Curcas, in which the stamens are not developed, their place is occupied by glandular bodies forming the disk.
Each division of the tricarpellary ovary of Jatropha Curcas has a bifurcate or forked style, and the ovary of Emblica officinalis has three styles, each of which is twice forked.
These are made up, as Prince Max zu Neuwied found in southern Bahia in 1817, " of the genera Cocos, Melastoma, Bignonia, Rhexia, Mimosa, Inga, Bombax, Ilex, Laurus, Myrthus, Eugenia, Jacaranda, Jatropha, Visinia, Lecythis, Ficus, and a thousand other, for the most part, unknown species of trees."