Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Ricinus communis
Common name
Castor oil plant
Family
Euphorbiaceae
Where found
Forest in clearings and regrowth, pastures, roadsides, gardens, disturbed sites, and stream banks. Mainly Sydney area and south to Jervis Bay. Occasionally elsewhere.
Notes
Introduced annual or perennial herb or shrub to about 12 m tall. Seed cases spiny, ovary of female flowers prickly. Stems hairless, usually glaucous, dull, pale green, becoming streaked with red. Leaves with an unpleasant odour when rubbed. Leaves alternating up the stems, 10-80 cm long, 100-800 mm in diameter, peltate, dissected into 5-10 lobes with toothed margins. Male and female flowers on the same plant. Flowers with green bases, with 0 petals and 3-5 greyish to yellow sepals each 5-8 mm long, united near the base. Female flowers with red styles. Male flowers with cream to yellowish anthers. Flowers in loose elongated clusters about 8-15 cm long, female flowers towards the top of the stalk, male flowers lower. Flowers all year. Seed cases green turning red, finally black, 10-30 mm in diameter, releasing the seeds explosively. Leaves and seeds poisonous.
General Biosecurity Duty all NSW.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Ricinus~communis (accessed 5 February, 2021)
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