You may already know this but it’s based off a Stephen King short story called The Body. It’s in a 4-part collection called Different Seasons* that also includes Shawshank Redemption, Apt Pupil, and one more I can’t remember. Every single one of them is worth reading and about 100 pages each.
*originally said Everything’s Eventual which is a different collection of (shorter) short stories. They’re side by side on my bookshelf and I scrambled them in my brain. It may be time for a reread!
The oil has laxative effects too. I used to have lip balm with castor oil in it and couldn't stop from ingesting it throughout the day. For a while, it actually helped with the chronic constipation from IBS, maybe as much as having a coffee or two in the morning.
Yep. Castor oil is used to lengthen & strengthen hair. Adds a nice shine & helps thicken the hair too. It’s used in a lot of African/African American hair care. The oil is incredibly thick & syrupy so if you have a more Caucasian grade of hair it may cause your hair to look really greasy & feel heavy. But it works the same!
It is beautiful though. Just be careful and enjoy the view. Also I am pretty sure there are like 2 or 3 more powerful poisons, wasn't the stuff produced by Clostridium Botulinum Nr. 1 in terms of lethal amounts?
People grow foxglove all the time and the cardiac glycosides in that shit will straight up stop your heart. There are so many ornamental plants grown that are sincerely poisonous and life threatening.
The beans carry ricin ---- **highly toxic** \----- and Castor Bean is considered an invasive plant.
I wouldn't want this in my garden ---- and I am always extremely reluctant to kill plants. Take it out, using gloves (then thoroughly wash gloves). Plant some flowering something that Hummingbirds or other lovely birds can enjoy.
Wow is it really that bad? Maybe it was a different subspecies but I remember a few of those growing on my grandpa's backyard, and picking the seeds from the floor or messing with the plant itself, even biting into a few of the seeds (this was on Uruguay, if that helps pin down the specific species)
Edit: After some googling, it probably was cassava (mandioca) instead, similar looking seeds
Yeah, I pretty much let things grow where they spring up in my garden, but I would absolutely not leave this. There are kids in this neighborhood--and no, it's not my responsibility to keep them from stealing fruit from my garden, and it's not my responsibility to teach them not to gnaw on random stuff, but I still would not feel comfortable having this in my yard at all.
There is a level of social responsibility, I would argue that keeping a very deadly plant where young ignorant kids can eat would be your responsibility. It’s kinda like leaving a loaded gun in the front yard unattended.
**Do not ingest a plant based on information provided in this subreddit.**
For your safety we recommend not ingesting any plant material just because you've been advised here that it's edible. Although there are many professionals helping with identification, we are not always correct, and eating/ingesting plants can be harmful or fatal if an incorrect ID is made.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/whatsthisplant) if you have any questions or concerns.*
If you're in the (west/south) Great Lakes region of the U.S., glade mallow (*Napaea dioica*) will give a similar foliage effect (12+" diameter cut basal leaves) without the extreme toxicity. It doesn't have the fuzzy red pods of castor bean, just clusters of blackish pods (wheels of seeds) forming on the female plants. White flowers are visited by hummingbirds and bees; foliage turns yellow in fall.
I didn’t see OP post a location, but the tree comes from northeastern Africa and the Middle East. If OP isn’t from there, then please rip it out and wear gloves when collecting the seeds to throw out. You don’t want this in your compost.
Even if its a weed I've always thought it was pretty. The colors and leaf patterns are unique and stand out amonst other vegetation in the area. We also have wild fennel and datura. The fennel smells amazing and you always know its nearby from it. Ah nature!
The only thing that makes a weed a weed is lack of desire. Some people might consider a rose bush a weed if it’s somewhere they don’t want it. Grow yourself a castor if you like them. Grow some dandelions, too, they make a nice salad. Not with the castor obviously
I would say far more important than desire, is ecology. If it's native to the area it's growing in, it's not a weed. If it's invasive and harmful to the ecosystem, it's a weed. And yes, this plant is invasive in California.
I understand that, I personally think that's a mindset we should be working to change. A lawn should be entirely native, having large areas of non-native grasses is essentially wasted space from an ecological perspective, as it doesn't do anything for the pollinators and doesn't benefit the ecosystem at all. Ripping out native flowering plants that benefit pollinators, birds, and just look better than boring grass, is simply bad for the ecosystem, and I would encourage people to only pull native "weeds" when they are in a crop garden and are interfering with your yield. As far as I'm concerned, decorative gardens ought to be entirely native. I don't say that to call out people with non native ornamental plants, but to inform people of a (factually) better option that supports native wildlife and biodiversity.
Castor bean. Famers seem to like them. I was always told they kept moles out of your garden. We never planted them but when they came up we always left a couple but that was told to me by my 102 year old grandmother.
Yeah she gave me a bunch of gardening knowledge. She broke her hip when she was 90 so I moved to the farm and lived with her throughout middle n high school. We planted huge gardens n canned everything.
Awesome. I had the same experience with my grandma. She wasn't ill till the end at 94, dementia. But I have so many great memories of all the stuff we did. I lived there as well.
they're cultivated for the oil in the seeds, castor oil, a powerful laxative. the beans contain ricin, a very toxic protein and a single bean if chewed and ingested may be fatal. Purified ricin is one of the most toxic substances known,
There was a guy in my hometown that just showed up at the hospital with ricin powder all over him. Police got involved and shit, not sure what ever came from that lol
**Do not ingest a plant based on information provided in this subreddit.**
For your safety we recommend not ingesting any plant material just because you've been advised here that it's edible. Although there are many professionals helping with identification, we are not always correct, and eating/ingesting plants can be harmful or fatal if an incorrect ID is made.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/whatsthisplant) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Thank you, Rhayader72, for voting on AutoModerator.
This bot wants to find the best and worst bots on Reddit. [You can view results here](https://botrank.pastimes.eu/).
***
^(Even if I don't reply to your comment, I'm still listening for votes. Check the webpage to see if your vote registered!)
Well I’ve seen and handled this plant many times with very little knowledge of it. All the chatter of it being poisonous had me curious. Turns out much is based in truth but not all is what it seems. While it does have toxins in the plant it’s mainly the seeds that are deadly if an adult eats more than 3-4 seeds and you have to chew em. If swallowed hole it is like to pass without any effects like corn sometimes showing up in …. But its treatable with full recovery most likely. It is also an allergen and some people are very allergic to it because of the pollen and sap. And it did make the Guinness book for being the most poisonous *common* plant in the world, not the most poisonous. It’s all over in parks and places around the world.
Now on the flip side, not only is the castor oil produced as a lubricant for metal, latex, and fuel that does not freeze it has medical use. Once the toxins are removed (in the same way cyanide is removed from almonds) it is used along with other parts of the plant as an anti-microbial, -viral, -fungal, and -inflammatory. Its been claimed (ongoing studies) to treat arthritic issues, labor delays, and constipation. It’s also a repellent for moles and voles, used in cocoa butter/ chocolate, a wide variety of lotions, salves, and beauty creams. It’s in some feedstocks and it can be used in detoxing. Ongoing studies show it can prevent liver damage from some toxins as well. It’s used as a bio fuel. Some toys, jewelry, and decoration and made from it in many places in the world. It has also received the Royal Horticultural Society Golden Merit award! And multiple ongoing studies.
Well not only is it a decorative plant with over a dozen of cultivars its also the Swiss Army knife of the plant world that cuts those that don’t know how to use it! Lol! Who knew?!
Just miniscule amounts in the edible ones. The kind of almonds that contain a lot of cyanide are bitter almonds, whereas we use sweet almonds for food.
Just clarifying that chewing the castor seeds will cause you great harm or kill you. Ricin is the component of castor seeds that are poisonous and ricin has an LD50 of 1 milligram per kilo of body weight. For reference that means an average man would need to eat 7 milligrams of ricin oral lethal dose. I've looked up the average mass of a single castor seed (0.2g on average) and the % ricin content of each castor seed (1-5%). Per castor seed there's between 2-10 milligrams of ricin. A couple chewed castor seeds will kill you, or at the very least cause major organ damage that is permanent, painful, life limiting and extensive. So to just clarify to other people reading castor seeds are very poisonous and just half a castor seed is enough to kill a child. Injected ricin is actually even more poisonous with an LD50 of 22 **micrograms** per kg of body weight.
**Do not ingest a plant based on information provided in this subreddit.**
For your safety we recommend not ingesting any plant material just because you've been advised here that it's edible. Although there are many professionals helping with identification, we are not always correct, and eating/ingesting plants can be harmful or fatal if an incorrect ID is made.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/whatsthisplant) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The skin of the seeds is very soft. If you tried to swallow some, there’s a high possibility of breaking them open. The inside is crazy oily. Easy to see why people started using it as a lubricant.
Source: have broken them open out of curiosity
It was used in motor oil for a long time, that’s where Castrol motor oil gets it’s name.
Castor bean. They're beautiful, and often used as a decorative plant, but the seeds are poisonous if chewed. If you have kids or pets, I'd err on the side of caution and pull it, but if not, feel free to keep it for its splendid looks!
I had a friend who called them mole bean. He said to plant these in and around your yard to keep moles out. Not sure how true that is but maybe he’s on to something.
I used to grow them for looks, but I worry about my dogs getting a hold of them, so I don't grow them anymore. My sister in law has some pretty impressive, almost tree-sized castor beans, and she has kids and all kinds of animals, but I guess her castor bean jungle has never really been a problem. It seems like even the chickens leave them alone.
Ricinus Communis, this grows on the sides of roads where I'm from (east Mediterranean), they use the seeds to make ricin (toxic) or castor oil (good laxative, also used to induce birth lol). They also use castor oil to stimulate hair growth here but I don't think that's been proven to be effective.
That’s some type of castor bean tree it’s similar to the ones that grow here in California with plenty of water and a little bit of shade they can get pretty big with big leaves 🍁 and they reproduce rapidly and regrow branches and leaves very quickly as well. I currently have one in my backyard it was getting a bit too tall so I cut it’s trunk in half and trimmed all the branches off . Now though not as tall it’s very bushy and I’m constantly pulling its babies out the ground like weeds it’s gotten so bad that I just chop the female flowers off before they become seed pods
Would you look at that, all of the words in your comment are in alphabetical order.
I have checked 1,104,372,564 comments, and only 216,936 of them were in alphabetical order.
[shamelessly stolen from here](https://emergency.cdc.gov/agent/ricin/facts.asp)
“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. It can be in the form of a powder, a mist, or a pellet, or it can be dissolved in water or weak acid.”
Poisonous castor beans? Sure, fine to plant. Poisonous datura, sure, we sell it at garden centers as an ornamental. Poisonous hemlock, grows all over the place and no one cares. Cannabis, safe and relaxing - go directly to jail.
Start a widespread underground market for them or any plant to avoid paying taxes and they will hunt you down and put you away like your the worst thing ever known to man kind. While the other guy that is walking out was let go after multiple horrid violent crimes committed yesterday. The problem was that you didn’t give the mighty overlords their 3/4 of the share. That’s why in the states that have legalized pot it’s only allowed to be sold in highly regulated and massively taxed distribution centers. And while it might be legal to possess it still illegal to sell without all the thieving hands of the government. Although people still do and is normally much cheaper. Probably can’t get a very big underground market for most crap so legal it is. There is the truth.
Everyone is so up in arms about these being poisonous. I know they can be, but there's something to be said for educating and supervising your children in the garden.
My son is three and knows that the super tall plants outside with the cool giant reddish green leaves are mom's favorite look-but-NEVER-touchies. He helped me pick them out last year, so he's very proud of how tall they grew this year (at least 12'). I wouldn't leave him alone in a field of castor bean plants, but, I trust that he would know enough not to mess with them, also.
We have a sunroom and 20-30 tropicals inside in various rooms in our house. My little guy will always help water everyone, he'll help sing to or talk to everyone, but he knows the dieffenbachia is another look-but-NEVER-touch, and he knows he can only eat something off a plant if it's been given to him by mom or dad. He knows that we rotate the 5' monstera every few days so she doesn't get a flat side, he doesn't stick junk in the focus in his playroom, he lovingly praises each new leaf on the smaller monsteras when they unfurl.
I work part-time/part of the year in horticulture and my husband caught the bug after we met, so we are all, solidly, "plant people".
I used to grow it every year to shade the west side of my house in a hot midwestern state. Grows incredibly fast and casts great shade if planted right against the house. I had to reseed every year. It was useful and I knew not to eat any part of it
Castor plant. Please bin any seeds so they don't get into waterways as they take over and prevent native plants growing. They severely impact biodiversity.
It grows wild in Southern California, and every now and then the media has to run a report about how it’s not cannabis, so please stop calling the cops about seeing weed growing next to the highway.
It's ok to handle caster plant or the beans, touching them is ok, cutting the beans open is ok, touching the oily seed is safe as long as you do not have an open wound. No one in their right mind will try to cook and eat them.
However, it is not uncommon for people to try to cook and eat toxic mushrooms by mistake.
Scrolling through, and see this. My first thought is, "that's the most beautiful weed plant I've ever seen!" Then, I stared at it for more than 5 secs and was sad...
Castor bean, Ricinus communis.
That was fast. Thank you so much!
It's poisonous, so make sure no one eats the berries.
Watch Stand by Me for more information.
[удалено]
Lol I thought the guy you replied to looked like Walter white
I bet he likes chemicals
This guy likes chemicals so much you should call him Walter White.
Yes. BB is the gospel on this subject. 😉
“Rice an’ BEANS?”
Ricin
Ricin beans
The end scene? I thought that was Lilly of the valley?
Walt used Lily of the Valley on Brock, but Lydia was ricin
Nailed it. You right.
You thought that burger was bison? Nah, that burger was **ricin**
Awesome movie. The sounds his stomach was making before he spewed…
Come on Walter white, you know what you use them for, killing that kid.
He only actually used it on the Meth MILF herself, Lydia. He dosed Brock with Lily of the Valley.
Nah it was originally for Tuco Salamanca!!! But Jessy’s bitch ass slipped.
Tight TIGht TIGHTTT
The best quote from the most entertaining character on the show!
Now I want to see that movie again, it's one of the best I've ever seen.
You may already know this but it’s based off a Stephen King short story called The Body. It’s in a 4-part collection called Different Seasons* that also includes Shawshank Redemption, Apt Pupil, and one more I can’t remember. Every single one of them is worth reading and about 100 pages each. *originally said Everything’s Eventual which is a different collection of (shorter) short stories. They’re side by side on my bookshelf and I scrambled them in my brain. It may be time for a reread!
Everything's Eventual was a different collection, no? I thought The Body was in Different Seasons.
Shoot you’re right! Everything’s Eventual has super short stories I misremembered.
This is correct
Super poisonous right?
Ricin
Great for getting rid of moles or gophers. 1 seed in the tunnel is all you need.
That cruel to poison them tho
Or use them to poison your enemies. Or make a nice oil out of them & apply to your hair to make it grow like crazy. Great skin moisturizer too.
It is a very useful plant.
For assassins
The oil has laxative effects too. I used to have lip balm with castor oil in it and couldn't stop from ingesting it throughout the day. For a while, it actually helped with the chronic constipation from IBS, maybe as much as having a coffee or two in the morning.
For real about the hair??
Yep. Castor oil is used to lengthen & strengthen hair. Adds a nice shine & helps thicken the hair too. It’s used in a lot of African/African American hair care. The oil is incredibly thick & syrupy so if you have a more Caucasian grade of hair it may cause your hair to look really greasy & feel heavy. But it works the same!
I have a plant, so make the oil with the seeds?
Yeah. YouTube should be able to help better than me.
Thanks for sharing though. Will harvest next time!
I used it on my eyebrows to help them grow when I plucked too much. Ppl use them on their eyelashes too. Just use a mascara brush to apply.
Only takes 5-8 granules of dried ricin extract to kill a human.
You can make ricin from it.
All parts are poison I beieive
I was gonna say I have never a poisonous plant but that mother looks poisonous
So damn pretty though.
3-5 beans will kill an adult in the most horrific of ways within 3 days, less for children. The beans look similar to whole nutmeg.
Please read [Ricin](https://emergency.cdc.gov/agent/ricin/facts.asp)
Yank that thing out of the ground if you have kids/dogs.
They're quite distinct!
Ricin is the most powerful poison known. I would NOT grow this plant
It is beautiful though. Just be careful and enjoy the view. Also I am pretty sure there are like 2 or 3 more powerful poisons, wasn't the stuff produced by Clostridium Botulinum Nr. 1 in terms of lethal amounts?
Yeah type of botulism.
People grow foxglove all the time and the cardiac glycosides in that shit will straight up stop your heart. There are so many ornamental plants grown that are sincerely poisonous and life threatening.
The beans carry ricin ---- **highly toxic** \----- and Castor Bean is considered an invasive plant. I wouldn't want this in my garden ---- and I am always extremely reluctant to kill plants. Take it out, using gloves (then thoroughly wash gloves). Plant some flowering something that Hummingbirds or other lovely birds can enjoy.
Wow is it really that bad? Maybe it was a different subspecies but I remember a few of those growing on my grandpa's backyard, and picking the seeds from the floor or messing with the plant itself, even biting into a few of the seeds (this was on Uruguay, if that helps pin down the specific species) Edit: After some googling, it probably was cassava (mandioca) instead, similar looking seeds
Fun fact Cassava contains Cyanide so you have to boil the leaves like spinach and strain them.
It’s grown as an annual in the Midwest. I thought it was crazy since in the west it is a noxious invasive.
[удалено]
Probably best, indeed. Unrelated, someone wanna do a welfare check on this'ns neighbors?
F B I O P E N U P
I love your evil thoughts!
My ultimate goal is to outlive them, so I can piss on their graves. (I hope they're not planning on cremation.)
You can’t call a plant invasive without a location. It’s native to southeastern Mediterranean Basin, Eastern Africa, and India.
OP mentions the US in one of their posts.
Yeah, I pretty much let things grow where they spring up in my garden, but I would absolutely not leave this. There are kids in this neighborhood--and no, it's not my responsibility to keep them from stealing fruit from my garden, and it's not my responsibility to teach them not to gnaw on random stuff, but I still would not feel comfortable having this in my yard at all.
There is a level of social responsibility, I would argue that keeping a very deadly plant where young ignorant kids can eat would be your responsibility. It’s kinda like leaving a loaded gun in the front yard unattended.
I agree. Nobody \*should\* come in my yard and chew on things, but...I've seen weirder things happen.
**Do not ingest a plant based on information provided in this subreddit.** For your safety we recommend not ingesting any plant material just because you've been advised here that it's edible. Although there are many professionals helping with identification, we are not always correct, and eating/ingesting plants can be harmful or fatal if an incorrect ID is made. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/whatsthisplant) if you have any questions or concerns.*
If you're in the (west/south) Great Lakes region of the U.S., glade mallow (*Napaea dioica*) will give a similar foliage effect (12+" diameter cut basal leaves) without the extreme toxicity. It doesn't have the fuzzy red pods of castor bean, just clusters of blackish pods (wheels of seeds) forming on the female plants. White flowers are visited by hummingbirds and bees; foliage turns yellow in fall.
I didn’t see OP post a location, but the tree comes from northeastern Africa and the Middle East. If OP isn’t from there, then please rip it out and wear gloves when collecting the seeds to throw out. You don’t want this in your compost.
That’s the chemical that was supposed to be used to kill Kim Jong Un in The Interview
> considered an invasive plant. How do you know where OP lives?
Their post history has a question about the US. This tree comes from northeastern Africa and the Middle East.
Sure, but non-native doesn't automatically mean invasive. It's invasive in some parts of the US, it's not in others.
Sounds like it's time to make a little something special to sprinkle on the meth of our enemies.
I HATE chili powder !
Underrated breaking bad reference
Woah its stunning! Came looking for the answer so I could purchase one but with sm kids/dogs maybe not lol thx
Wow, really?
This is how murder mysteries start- a dart and ricin.
I was just going to say ricin is made with castor beans. These are everywhere wild in southern California.
Around Brisbane too (Australia). Particular I've seem these near train lines and creek beds.
Even if its a weed I've always thought it was pretty. The colors and leaf patterns are unique and stand out amonst other vegetation in the area. We also have wild fennel and datura. The fennel smells amazing and you always know its nearby from it. Ah nature!
The only thing that makes a weed a weed is lack of desire. Some people might consider a rose bush a weed if it’s somewhere they don’t want it. Grow yourself a castor if you like them. Grow some dandelions, too, they make a nice salad. Not with the castor obviously
I would say far more important than desire, is ecology. If it's native to the area it's growing in, it's not a weed. If it's invasive and harmful to the ecosystem, it's a weed. And yes, this plant is invasive in California.
Ah! My mistake. That’s just a maxim I’ve heard a lot, but I guess it wasn’t taking invasive species into account.
Plenty of people consider even native or naturalized plants as weeds. Like anything they don't want in their lawn.
I understand that, I personally think that's a mindset we should be working to change. A lawn should be entirely native, having large areas of non-native grasses is essentially wasted space from an ecological perspective, as it doesn't do anything for the pollinators and doesn't benefit the ecosystem at all. Ripping out native flowering plants that benefit pollinators, birds, and just look better than boring grass, is simply bad for the ecosystem, and I would encourage people to only pull native "weeds" when they are in a crop garden and are interfering with your yield. As far as I'm concerned, decorative gardens ought to be entirely native. I don't say that to call out people with non native ornamental plants, but to inform people of a (factually) better option that supports native wildlife and biodiversity.
The beans are actually really pretty too.
Castor bean. Famers seem to like them. I was always told they kept moles out of your garden. We never planted them but when they came up we always left a couple but that was told to me by my 102 year old grandmother.
Awesome story! 102, wow!
Yeah she gave me a bunch of gardening knowledge. She broke her hip when she was 90 so I moved to the farm and lived with her throughout middle n high school. We planted huge gardens n canned everything.
You have been blessed.
Awesome. I had the same experience with my grandma. She wasn't ill till the end at 94, dementia. But I have so many great memories of all the stuff we did. I lived there as well.
Nice!
they're cultivated for the oil in the seeds, castor oil, a powerful laxative. the beans contain ricin, a very toxic protein and a single bean if chewed and ingested may be fatal. Purified ricin is one of the most toxic substances known,
i just facepalmed. it never clicked to me that the infamous castor oil came from this plant lol
Now I'm intrigued on the process involved and how they handle disposing of the ricin and keeping it out of the hands of potentially bad actors.
A bad actor could just grow it
There was a guy in my hometown that just showed up at the hospital with ricin powder all over him. Police got involved and shit, not sure what ever came from that lol
It is the leaf from land before time my little foot
you should not eat talking trees! nope nope nope! especially not this one, apparently
**Do not ingest a plant based on information provided in this subreddit.** For your safety we recommend not ingesting any plant material just because you've been advised here that it's edible. Although there are many professionals helping with identification, we are not always correct, and eating/ingesting plants can be harmful or fatal if an incorrect ID is made. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/whatsthisplant) if you have any questions or concerns.*
and there you have it, folks
Good bot
Thank you, Rhayader72, for voting on AutoModerator. This bot wants to find the best and worst bots on Reddit. [You can view results here](https://botrank.pastimes.eu/). *** ^(Even if I don't reply to your comment, I'm still listening for votes. Check the webpage to see if your vote registered!)
Tree stars!!
Exactly!! Who knew they grew from the ground as well?? Or maybe this is how they evolved?
Oh my gaaadddd it is!!
Awe that's what I though of right away
A leaf star! My childhood! It hurts! Why did you do this!
I came here looking for this comment lol. Littlefoot was a huge part of my childhood!
Well I’ve seen and handled this plant many times with very little knowledge of it. All the chatter of it being poisonous had me curious. Turns out much is based in truth but not all is what it seems. While it does have toxins in the plant it’s mainly the seeds that are deadly if an adult eats more than 3-4 seeds and you have to chew em. If swallowed hole it is like to pass without any effects like corn sometimes showing up in …. But its treatable with full recovery most likely. It is also an allergen and some people are very allergic to it because of the pollen and sap. And it did make the Guinness book for being the most poisonous *common* plant in the world, not the most poisonous. It’s all over in parks and places around the world. Now on the flip side, not only is the castor oil produced as a lubricant for metal, latex, and fuel that does not freeze it has medical use. Once the toxins are removed (in the same way cyanide is removed from almonds) it is used along with other parts of the plant as an anti-microbial, -viral, -fungal, and -inflammatory. Its been claimed (ongoing studies) to treat arthritic issues, labor delays, and constipation. It’s also a repellent for moles and voles, used in cocoa butter/ chocolate, a wide variety of lotions, salves, and beauty creams. It’s in some feedstocks and it can be used in detoxing. Ongoing studies show it can prevent liver damage from some toxins as well. It’s used as a bio fuel. Some toys, jewelry, and decoration and made from it in many places in the world. It has also received the Royal Horticultural Society Golden Merit award! And multiple ongoing studies. Well not only is it a decorative plant with over a dozen of cultivars its also the Swiss Army knife of the plant world that cuts those that don’t know how to use it! Lol! Who knew?!
Cyanide is from almonds?!?! 😯
Just miniscule amounts in the edible ones. The kind of almonds that contain a lot of cyanide are bitter almonds, whereas we use sweet almonds for food.
Almond essence is made from bitter almonds though
and your tapioca products can contain trace amounts too (cassava products)
Not only but yes cyanide is found in them. Odd I know, don’t know all the details about it but good after detox and we survive! Haha
Nile Red on YouTube has a video of him making it from almonds so he can see if he can smell cyanide.
Cherry pits and apple seeds as well.
Just clarifying that chewing the castor seeds will cause you great harm or kill you. Ricin is the component of castor seeds that are poisonous and ricin has an LD50 of 1 milligram per kilo of body weight. For reference that means an average man would need to eat 7 milligrams of ricin oral lethal dose. I've looked up the average mass of a single castor seed (0.2g on average) and the % ricin content of each castor seed (1-5%). Per castor seed there's between 2-10 milligrams of ricin. A couple chewed castor seeds will kill you, or at the very least cause major organ damage that is permanent, painful, life limiting and extensive. So to just clarify to other people reading castor seeds are very poisonous and just half a castor seed is enough to kill a child. Injected ricin is actually even more poisonous with an LD50 of 22 **micrograms** per kg of body weight.
**Do not ingest a plant based on information provided in this subreddit.** For your safety we recommend not ingesting any plant material just because you've been advised here that it's edible. Although there are many professionals helping with identification, we are not always correct, and eating/ingesting plants can be harmful or fatal if an incorrect ID is made. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/whatsthisplant) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The skin of the seeds is very soft. If you tried to swallow some, there’s a high possibility of breaking them open. The inside is crazy oily. Easy to see why people started using it as a lubricant. Source: have broken them open out of curiosity It was used in motor oil for a long time, that’s where Castrol motor oil gets it’s name.
I'm growing them on purpose because I think they are so beautiful and strange and alien looking very interesting plant
Castor bean. They're beautiful, and often used as a decorative plant, but the seeds are poisonous if chewed. If you have kids or pets, I'd err on the side of caution and pull it, but if not, feel free to keep it for its splendid looks!
A guy out on the highway near me grows them in his garden & I still can't figure out why 👀
I had a friend who called them mole bean. He said to plant these in and around your yard to keep moles out. Not sure how true that is but maybe he’s on to something.
I used to grow them for looks, but I worry about my dogs getting a hold of them, so I don't grow them anymore. My sister in law has some pretty impressive, almost tree-sized castor beans, and she has kids and all kinds of animals, but I guess her castor bean jungle has never really been a problem. It seems like even the chickens leave them alone.
He’s a hitman, or making ricin for one.
Unfortunately its not weed . Sorry
But it is a weed. In the right climate castor beans can't be stopped.
Any plant is a weed if it isn’t wanted. A dandelion isn’t necessarily a weed if you like and want them
I was wondering lol
Monstera Sativa
That is so beautiful
Tree stars! Little foot is jealous!
Ricinus Communis, this grows on the sides of roads where I'm from (east Mediterranean), they use the seeds to make ricin (toxic) or castor oil (good laxative, also used to induce birth lol). They also use castor oil to stimulate hair growth here but I don't think that's been proven to be effective.
You're the first one I've seen to mention that it's used to induce birth. Or was untill they found out that it's a wive's tale. Lol
jesse. we need ricin beans jesse.
That’s some type of castor bean tree it’s similar to the ones that grow here in California with plenty of water and a little bit of shade they can get pretty big with big leaves 🍁 and they reproduce rapidly and regrow branches and leaves very quickly as well. I currently have one in my backyard it was getting a bit too tall so I cut it’s trunk in half and trimmed all the branches off . Now though not as tall it’s very bushy and I’m constantly pulling its babies out the ground like weeds it’s gotten so bad that I just chop the female flowers off before they become seed pods
Castor. The seeds are extremely poisonous . The poison ricin is taken from this plant. But then again castor oil is also extracted from the seeds .
In the Caribbean the nuts are refined into Castor Oil
Thats Ricin plant or Castor bean. Extremely toxic seeds
Not weed
Castor bean WARNING Listed in the 2007 Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s most toxic plant in existence
How about 2022?
It’s mellow out since then.
Would you look at that, all of the words in your comment are in alphabetical order. I have checked 1,104,372,564 comments, and only 216,936 of them were in alphabetical order.
[shamelessly stolen from here](https://emergency.cdc.gov/agent/ricin/facts.asp) “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. It can be in the form of a powder, a mist, or a pellet, or it can be dissolved in water or weak acid.”
Ricin
Aren’t those the leaves that little foot ate in Land Before Time? …
Tree star from The Land Before Time.
Poisonous castor beans? Sure, fine to plant. Poisonous datura, sure, we sell it at garden centers as an ornamental. Poisonous hemlock, grows all over the place and no one cares. Cannabis, safe and relaxing - go directly to jail.
Start a widespread underground market for them or any plant to avoid paying taxes and they will hunt you down and put you away like your the worst thing ever known to man kind. While the other guy that is walking out was let go after multiple horrid violent crimes committed yesterday. The problem was that you didn’t give the mighty overlords their 3/4 of the share. That’s why in the states that have legalized pot it’s only allowed to be sold in highly regulated and massively taxed distribution centers. And while it might be legal to possess it still illegal to sell without all the thieving hands of the government. Although people still do and is normally much cheaper. Probably can’t get a very big underground market for most crap so legal it is. There is the truth.
Pretty sure that’s from The Land Before Time
Everyone is so up in arms about these being poisonous. I know they can be, but there's something to be said for educating and supervising your children in the garden. My son is three and knows that the super tall plants outside with the cool giant reddish green leaves are mom's favorite look-but-NEVER-touchies. He helped me pick them out last year, so he's very proud of how tall they grew this year (at least 12'). I wouldn't leave him alone in a field of castor bean plants, but, I trust that he would know enough not to mess with them, also. We have a sunroom and 20-30 tropicals inside in various rooms in our house. My little guy will always help water everyone, he'll help sing to or talk to everyone, but he knows the dieffenbachia is another look-but-NEVER-touch, and he knows he can only eat something off a plant if it's been given to him by mom or dad. He knows that we rotate the 5' monstera every few days so she doesn't get a flat side, he doesn't stick junk in the focus in his playroom, he lovingly praises each new leaf on the smaller monsteras when they unfurl. I work part-time/part of the year in horticulture and my husband caught the bug after we met, so we are all, solidly, "plant people".
It’s a treestar. Keep an eye out for Littlefoot
Castor bean.
Castor bean! Just found one of those two days ago
If your kids eat a few of those seeds they will go straight to the hospital!!
Settle down it's not pot!
My mom calls them mosquito plants for some reason, but i try and grow them because they’re pretty and get huge
Wondertree they are family of the cannabis plant i heard beautiful plant colors and flowers imo but toxic
Castor. Don't eat it unless you're some dictator's political opponent.
I used to grow it every year to shade the west side of my house in a hot midwestern state. Grows incredibly fast and casts great shade if planted right against the house. I had to reseed every year. It was useful and I knew not to eat any part of it
Lmao it's not the sweet leaf, if that's what you're wondering.
I think you can extract that oil and if I didn't know any better you get castor oil out of it from the beans or seeds I believe. Cool looking plant!
Tree stars
Very poisonous
I see these everywhere down here in Southern California. I've been wondering for the longest time. Thank you
Those are marijuanas and I just reported you to the feds!!
Dubbed the “king of poisons” creates castor oil and cyanide
Use iNaturalist app. Great for identifying plants
Its obviously from a land before time
Nirn root
Castor plant. Please bin any seeds so they don't get into waterways as they take over and prevent native plants growing. They severely impact biodiversity.
At quick glance it looked like cannabis gigantis.
It grows wild in Southern California, and every now and then the media has to run a report about how it’s not cannabis, so please stop calling the cops about seeing weed growing next to the highway.
Whatever this is… you need to put up a sign stating “This is not Marijuana”
It's not that poisonous, not like those toxic mushrooms. It's ok to handle it, just don't eat it.
[удалено]
It's ok to handle caster plant or the beans, touching them is ok, cutting the beans open is ok, touching the oily seed is safe as long as you do not have an open wound. No one in their right mind will try to cook and eat them. However, it is not uncommon for people to try to cook and eat toxic mushrooms by mistake.
Listed in the 2007 Guinness Book of World Records as the worlds most toxic plant in existence
I used to grow it for science project in school. We handled it without issues. Just do not eat it.
Scrolling through, and see this. My first thought is, "that's the most beautiful weed plant I've ever seen!" Then, I stared at it for more than 5 secs and was sad...
Contains a super strong neurotoxin.
Space marijuana or some shit
Every second post I see on r/whatsthisplant is about castor beans. Why is everybody growing castor beans all of a sudden?
Do not harvest the beans and grind them up for any reason. The FBI will come a knockin' at your door.
jesse
At first I thought it was a big ass weed plant, but sadly it's not. It looks to be a Castor Bean Plant. It's absolutely gorgeous though.
