Ricinus communis
Click on each image to see a larger version and details of the record
Image 1
Habit
14 Dec 2008
Image 2
Leaf
14 Dec 2008
Image 3
Leaf
14 Dec 2008
Image 4
Leaf
14 Dec 2008
Image 5
Habit
14 Dec 2008
Image 6
Fruit
16 Dec 2008
| Family: | Euphorbiaceae |
| Full name: | Ricinus communis L. |
| ID status: | Fairly certain |
| Afrikaans common name(s): | Kasterolie, Kasterolieboom, Kasterolieplant |
| English common name(s): | Castor oil plant, Castor oil bush, Castor bean, Castor bean tree |
| Synonym(s): | Ricinus communis L. var. lividus (Jacq.) Müll.Arg. status incertain |
| Status: | Alien |
| Description: | Varying from ephemeral less than 1 m high to tree-like herb 5(–10) m high with trunk to 15 cm thick; stems hollow; young shoots often pruinose, purplish. Petioles (4–)10–30 cm; leaf-blade up to 1 m across, (5–)7–9(–12)-lobed, usually divided more than halfway, middle lobe 7–30(–75) x 2–8(–20) cm, tip acuminate, glandular-serrate, lateral lobes progressively smaller; stipule sheath 1.3–2.7 cm long. Raceme 10–30 cm long. Male flowers: pedicels 5–17 mm; calyx-lobes 5–8 x (2–)3–5 mm, acute; stamens 7–8 mm long. Female flowers: pedicels to 2–4.5 cm in fruit; sepals lanceolate, 5 mm long, acuminate; styles 2–5 mm long, usually red. Fruit 10–18 x 10–15 mm, usually with softly spiny processes 3–5 mm long. Seeds 7–12 x 5–8 x 4–6 mm, shiny silvery grey or beige marked with brown; caruncle 1–2 x 2–3 mm. (from JSTOR website / Flora Somalia) Herbaceous or shrubby, evergreen; twigs glaucous. Leaves alternate, long-petioled, orbicular-peltate, 6 in. to 2 ft. across, deeply palmately lobed; lobes 7 or more, from ovate or oblong to ovate-lanceolate or linear, acute or acuminate, margin sharply glandular-toothed, glabrous and glaucous on both surfaces, green or reddish: petiole 4–12 in. long; stipules large, ovate, connate in an acute bud-sheathing deciduous calyptra 0.5– 0.75 in. long, quickly deciduous. Flowers in large pyramidal pseudoterminal erect panicles, males below, females higher up. Male: Calyx 6 lin. wide; anthers yellow. Female: Calyx 4–5 lin. wide; styles usually brightly coloured. Capsule subglobose, ellipsoid or oblong, smooth or prickly, 7–12 lin. long, 7–10 lin. wide. Seed ovoid-flattened, 7–8 lin. long, 3–5 lin. wide; testa finely mottled; raphe faintly raised; caruncle conspicuous. (from JSTOR website / Flora of Tropical Africa) An erect glabrous pruinose single-stemmed or bushy, tree-like herb up to 7 m high. Stems up to 10 cm thick at base, hollow, becoming woody, grey. Young shoots often reddish-tinged. Petioles 4–30 cm long, or longer; glands discoid or turbinate. Leaf blades (5)7–11-lobed, 7–35(100) cm long and wide, with the median lobe 2–8(20) cm wide, and the lateral lobes progressively smaller; lobes ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, acuminate, coarsely glandular-serrate, dark green on upper surface, paler beneath, the nerves yellowish; lateral nerves in 15–25 pairs on the median lobe. Stipular sheath up to 2.7 cm long, ovate, reddish or purplish. Inflorescences 10–30 cm long; bracts c. 1 cm long, lanceolate; bracteoles similar, but smaller. Male flowers: pedicels up to 1.7 cm long; calyx lobes 5–8 x 2–5 mm, ovate, acute, pale green, often purplish-tinged; stamens 7–8 mm long, anthers 0.5 mm long, pale yellow. Female flowers: pedicels 0.5–1 cm long, extending to 4.5 cm in fruit; sepals c. 5 mm long, lanceolate, acuminate, often purplish-tinged; ovary 2 mm long and wide, 3-lobed to subglobose; styles up to 7 mm long. Fruit 1–2.3 cm long and wide, strongly 3-lobed, smooth, or sparingly to densely beset with narrowly-cylindric bristle-tipped processes 3–6 mm long, bluish-green. Seeds 7–21 x 5–15 x 4–8 mm, smooth, usually shiny, grey, silvery-white or beige, usually variously streaked, mottled, flecked or blotched with olive-brown, reddish-brown or brownish-black; caruncle 1–2 x 2–3 mm, depressed-conic. (from JSTOR website / Flora Zambesiaca) |
| Link(s) |
African Plant Database
JSTOR Plant Science Kew Herbarium Catalogue BGBM Berlin-Dahlem - Virtual Herbarium Züricher Herbarien Flora of Zimbabwe Fleurs de notre Terre - Galerie Namibie |
| Content last updated: | 22 Nov 2011 |
