Pistarckle (Croton betulinus)

Select Flora Acacia Amarat Anthurium Bamboo Baobob Bananas Bay Rum Beach Maho Black Caper Breadfruit Cactus Calabash Catch 'n' Keep Century Plant Chocolate Christmas Bush Coconuts Coffee Cotton Egg Fruit Fiddlewood Flamboyant Frangipani Genip Gooseberry Guavaberry Hog Plum Hot Peppers Jacquinea Kapok Lignum Vitae Mampoo Mango Maran Maubi Night Blooming Cerius Nothing Nut Pinguin Pistarckle Poui Sage Sandbox Seagrape Sea Puslane Sensitive Plant Starfruit Sugar Apple Sweet Lime Tamarind Torch Wood Wild Tamarind West Indian Locust White Cedar White Manjack

The pistarckle, also known as broom bush, is a relative of the more commonly found maran bush. Like maran and other crotons, the pistarckle is poisonous to livestock and thus remains where grazing has wiped out other species. Because of the nature of the leaves, it has been used to make brooms.

The word, "pistarckle," was used in the former language of St. John, Dutch Creole, to signify a commotion.