• Family : EUPHORBIACEAE
  (Spurge Family)
• Family (Hindi name) : AMLA FAMILY (आँवला फैमिली)
• Family (as per The APG System III) : EUPHORBIACEAE
• Synonym(s) : Croton sparsiflorus Morong
• Species Name (as per The Plant List) : Croton bonplandianus Baill.
• Common name : Railway Weed, Riverside Weed
• Vernacular name : Utti gida (Kannada); Reil poondu, Aatthuppoondu (Tamil); Railpondu (Telugu); Banmirchi, Banmircho (Oria); Pichhi chettu, Gallivenachettu (Telugu)
• Habit : Herb
• Habitat : Degraded forests and roadsides
• Comments / notes : An introduced species. Widely naturalized in wasteland, forest clearings, degraded ghats, village side and in plains of fallow lands. A ready colonizer.
• Flower, Fruit : Throughout the year
• Distribution :
  • Andhra Pradesh : Throughout Andhra Pradesh
  • Karnataka : Chikkamagaluru district, Dakshina Kannada district, Shivamogga district, Uttara Kannada district, Udupi district
  • Kerala : All districts of Kerala
  • Maharashtra : Akola district
  • Odisha : Throughout Odisha
• Native : temperate South America
• World Distribution : Naturalized in paleotropics
• Conservation Status : Not Evaluated (NE)
• Literature : H.O. Saxena & M. Brahmam, 1995- Flora of Orissa Vol. 3; R. S. Rao et al., 1986 - Flora of West Godavari District; R. S. Rao and S. H. Sreeramulu, 1986 - Flora of Srikakulam District; H. O. Saxena and M. Brahmam, 1989 - The Flora of Similipahar (Similipal), Orissa; N.P.Singh, 1988. Flora of Eastern Karnataka; Matthew, K.M., The Flora of Tamil Nadu Carnatic, Vol.3 (2). Diocesan Press, Madras. 1983; Sasidharan, N. 2011. Flowering plants of Kerala. DVD, V 2, KFRI.
• Citation : Sankara Rao, K., Raja K Swamy, Deepak Kumar, Arun Singh R. and K. Gopalakrishna Bhat (2019). Flora of Peninsular India. http://peninsula.ces.iisc.ac.in/plants.php?name=Croton bonplandianus. Downloaded on 5 June 2025.

Botanical Description

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