Ricinus communis
Poisonous plant
Environmental Weed (2024)
Common names
castor oil plant
Biostatus
Exotic
Category
Vascular
Structural class
Trees & Shrubs - Dicotyledons
Flower colours
Green, Red/Pink
Detailed description
Castor oil plant is a small, spreading tree up to 4m tall. The leaves are large, soft and deeply lobed (20-40 cm diam.). The flowers are clustered in heads and the soft spiny capsules contain rectangular seeds up to 15 mm long. (West 1996)
Similar taxa
The NZ plants usually have purple leaves (Landcare Research 1999).
Habitat
Terrestrial.
Conservation status
Not applicable
Detailed taxonomy
Family
Ecology
Flowering
December, January, February
Fruiting
not known
Year naturalised
1864
Origin
Tropical Africa
Reason for introduction
Ornamental
Other information
Poisonous plant
The mottled seeds are poisonous if eaten.
Environmental Weed (2024)
This plant is named in a list of 386 environmental weeds in New Zealand 2024 prepared by DOC. 759 candidate species were considered for inclusion on this new comprehensive list of environmental weeds in New Zealand. The species considered were drawn from published lists of weed species, lists of plants that must be reported or managed by law if observed, existing national and regional programmes and agreements for pest management, and species already managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC). Candidate species were then assessed to see if they were fully naturalised and whether they have more than minor impacts in natural ecosystems. Read the full report here.
NVS code
The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.
RICCOM