Castor Oil Plant

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Castor oil plant (Latin Ricinus) - an ornamental-leaved plant from the Euphorbiaceae family. Such an interesting name of the plant is due to the fact that its seeds are very similar in shape to an oriental tick.

Description

Castor oil plant is a very large and tall annual plant - the height of its bushes can reach two to three meters, but most often it still does not go beyond two meters. The stems of this plant are branched and erect, and inside they are usually hollow and colored in red, pink, purple or even almost black tones. Large, palmate-separate castor bean leaves have five to ten lobes, and their length can vary from twenty to sixty centimeters.

Castor bean flowers are very small and rather inconspicuous, with a characteristic reddish, white or creamy shade. They gather in rather dense inflorescences, which are characterized by a racemose shape. And the fruits of the castor oil plant are in the form of spherical capsules, which can be either prickly or naked. Such boxes quite often reach three centimeters in diameter.

Ripe oval seeds are usually flat on the ventral side, and more convex on the dorsal side, and there is a tiny longitudinal suture on each seed in the middle.

Where grows

The homeland of castor oil plant is considered to be distant Africa. And now it will not be difficult to see it in India, Iran, China, Argentina, Brazil, as well as in a number of African countries. Moreover, in Egypt, this plant has been successfully bred for more than four millennia!

Usage

In landscape design, castor bean is planted either as single plants on lawns (in this case, it plays the role of an excellent accent plant), or in small free groups. Located between the leaves of the castor bean, its bizarre fruits give the shrubs an extremely decorative look!

In culture, castor bean is grown on an industrial scale mainly due to the fact that a rather useful oil is obtained from its seeds - the seeds of this plant contain from forty to sixty percent of a very fatty oil. Moreover, this oil can be used both for medical purposes (the well-known castor oil), for example, as a laxative, and for technical purposes - the scope of its application will depend on the method of squeezing. And from the stem fibers of the castor oil plant, a fairly strong burlap and rope are made.

And in no case should we forget that all parts of the castor oil plant without exception contain dangerous toxic compounds! That is, this plant is poisonous not only for animals, but also for humans!

Growing and caring

It is recommended to plant castor oil plant in sufficiently moist, warm and sunny areas with nutritious soils (ideally, either with black soil or with well-fertilized sandy loam soils).

In hot weather, castor bean must be watered abundantly, and just before the formation of graceful inflorescences, you can feed this powerful plant with good nitrogen fertilizer.

Castor bean does not tolerate prolonged cold snaps and frosts, so this fact, too, in no case should be discounted.

Reproduction of castor bean occurs mainly by seeds - they are sown in greenhouses in early March, placing two or three seeds in each pot. And the seedlings are transplanted into pots one by one and also placed in greenhouses. It makes sense to plant castor oil plant in open ground when the danger of even minor frosts is completely avoided, and when planting seedlings, it is imperative to maintain a distance of 1 - 1, 2 m!