Weed Habitat 

• Native to the Caribbean and tropical America, Bellyache bush is a garden escape now naturalised in various areas of North Queensland on degraded lands and along river banks and roadsides.
• Seeds toxic to animals and humans.

Description 

• Erect shrub 2.5-3 m tall with thick, sappy stem
• Stems, leaf stalks and leaf margins covered with course, sticky, brown hairs.
• Young leaves purple, sticky, deeply divided into 3 rounded lobes. Older leaves bright green, about 10cm diameter, up to 5 lobes.
• Flowers small, purple-red with yellow centers, clustered on stalks in leaf axis of upper foliage.
• Fruit capsules smooth, 3-lobed and oval-shaped, about 12 mm across, contain 3 dark seeds.