How do you identify a castor bean plant?
Castor bean has stout, rounded, toothed petioles, up to 1½ feet in length, with greenish-white margins. Mostly alternate, the large, toothed prominently veined, palmate foliage is quite large, ranging from 1¼ to four feet across. It typically contains five to eleven deep lobes. The leaf color can vary considerably.
How do I know if I have Ricinus communis?
The fruit is a spiny, greenish (to reddish purple) capsule containing large, oval, shiny, bean-like, highly poisonous seeds with variable brownish mottling. Castor seeds have a warty appendage called the caruncle, which is a type of elaiosome. The caruncle promotes the dispersal of the seed by ants (myrmecochory).
What does castor oil plant look like?
Castor Oil Plant is a member of the Euphorbiaceae family. It is a shrub to 3 metres, with large multi-lobed leaves (7-9 lobes) and red branches. Leaflets are toothed. Flower spikes contain separate female and male flowers.
Where is ricin plant found?
Ricin is a poison found naturally in castor beans. If castor beans are chewed and swallowed, the released ricin can cause injury. Ricin can be made from the waste material left over from processing castor beans.
What part of the castor bean plant is poisonous?
seeds
The seeds from the castor bean plant, Ricinus communis, are poisonous to people, animals and insects. One of the main toxic proteins is “ricin”, named by Stillmark in 1888 when he tested the beans’ extract on red blood cells and saw them agglutinate.
Is it illegal to grow castor beans?
Growing the plant as an ornamental or a crop is not illegal, but extracting and concentrating ricin from it is, as you would in effect be making a potent biological weapon (obviously, I do not recommend that, either).
Which type of fruit is present in Ricinus?
castor bean
Its seed is the castor bean, which, despite its name, is not a bean (that is, the seed of many Fabaceae)….
| Ricinus | |
|---|---|
| Clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Malpighiales |
| Family: | Euphorbiaceae |
| Subfamily: | Acalyphoideae |
Is Ricinus communis the same as castor oil?
Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil is the naming convention for castor oil used in cosmetics. It is produced by cold pressing the seeds and subsequent clarification of the oil by heat.
Are castor plants illegal?
General Law There are no federal regulations restricting the possession of castor bean plants. According to a 2004 Congressional Research Service Report, castor bean plants and seeds are “openly sold” in the United States. There are, however, some states or cities (such as Hayward, Calif.)
Are castor bean plants illegal?
There are no federal regulations restricting the possession of castor bean plants. According to a 2004 Congressional Research Service Report, castor bean plants and seeds are “openly sold” in the United States. There are, however, some states or cities (such as Hayward, Calif.) which have banned the castor bean plant.
How tall does a Ricinus communis tree grow?
An evergreen glabrous, soft-woody shrub or small tree, often grown as annual, 1-5 m tall, with a strong tap-root and prominent lateral roots. Shoots usually glaucous, variously green or red. Occasional glands at nodes, petioles and main axes of inflorescences.
How did the Ricinus communis plant get its name?
The only member of the genus, Ricinus communis is in the Spurge Family (Euphorbiaceae). The word ricinus is Latin for “tick”, used for this plant name because of the superficial resemblance of the seeds to a particular species of European tick.
How many species are there in the genus Ricinus?
The genus Ricinus L. is considered to be monotypic ( R. communis) and is included in the subfamily Acalyphoideae which included about 99 genera and 1865 species. Previously described species within the genus Ricinus have been transferred to other genera or grouped within R. communis.
Where can you find Ricinus communis in Africa?
Ricinus communis is invasive in parts of Kenya (A.B.R. Witt pers. obs.), Tanzania (Henderson 2002) and Uganda (Lyons and Miller 1999).