Meaning

noun grown in many varieties for their brightly colored foliage; widely cultivated as a houseplant

noun tropical Asiatic shrub; source of croton oil

originThe river takes its name from the (Mohegan-Pequot) name of the chief of the group which lived along it. (It was formerly named after the group itself, the Kitchawan subdivision of the Mohegan.) The river feeds the Croton Reservoir in Croton-on-Hudson, which feeds the Croton Aqueduct, which supplies water to New York City, hence the metonymic sense. Early spellings of the name include Scroton.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0