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Ricinus communis
Euphorbiaceae FAMILY

Ricinus communis

Ricinus communis

Edibility
1/5
Medicinal
4/5

Safety & Hazards

The whole plant is very poisonous[1, 2, 3], even one seed has been known to be lethal to children[4, 5, 6]. There is no specific antidote[7]. The seedcoat contains an extremely lethal poison, called 'ricin', that was once used by the KGB to dispose of their enemies[8, 9]. The leaves are only mildly poisonous[5]. The toxic principle is water-soluble so is not found in the oil[5].

Cultivation Details

HabitEvergreen Shrub
GrowthFast

A plant of the tropics and subtropics, it can also be grown as a summer annual in temperate zones. It can be found at elevations up to 2,000 metres in the tropics. It grows best in areas where annual daytime temperatures are within the range 20 - 30°c, but can tolerate 15 - 39°c[7]. The seed may fail to set if temperatures rise above 38°c for an extended period[10]. When dormant, the plant can survive temperatures down to about -2°c, but young growth can be severely damaged at 0°c[7]. It prefers a mean annual rainfall in the range 600 - 1,000mm, but tolerates 400 - 2,000mm[7]. Prefers a well-drained moisture retentive clay or sandy loam in full sun[11, 6]. Requires a rich soil[10]. Prefers a pH in the range 5 - 6.5, tolerating 4.5 - 8[7]. The plant requires 140 - 180 days of warm temperatures in the growing season in order to produce good crops of seed[10]. Providing the plants water needs are met, yields of around 1 tonne per hectare have been achieved, with exceptional cases of up to 5 tonnes per hectare[10]. Plants can continue yielding for 8 - 12 years[7]. Plants may need support in exposed areas[12].

Propagation

Seed - sow early spring in a warm greenhouse in individual pots. When they are large enough to handle, prick the seedlings out into individual pots and plant them out after the last expected frosts[13]. The seeds retain their viability for 2 - 3 years[10]. Cite as: Temperate Plants Database, Ken Fern. temperate.theferns.info. 2026-02-21. <temperate.theferns.info/plant/Ricinus+communis>

Pollinators

Wind

References

  1. [1]Poisonous Plants and Animals. — Altmann. H. · Chatto and Windus · 1980 · ISBN 0-7011-2526-8 ↩︎A small book, reasonable but not very detailed.
  2. [2]Poisonous Plants. — Stary. F. · Hamlyn · 1983 · ISBN 0-600-35666-3 ↩︎Not very comprehensive, but easy reading.
  3. [3]Companion Planting for Successful Gardening. — Riotte. L. · Garden Way, Vermont, USA. · 1978 · ISBN 0-88266-064-0 ↩︎Fairly good.
  4. [4]A Colour Atlas of Poisonous Plants. — Frohne. D. and Pfänder. J. · Wolfe · 1984 · ISBN 0723408394 ↩︎Brilliant. Goes into technical details but in a very readable way. The best work on the subject that I've come across so far.
  5. [5]Poisonous Plants in Britain and their Effects on Animals and Man. — Cooper. M. and Johnson. A. · HMSO · 1984 · ISBN 0112425291 ↩︎Concentrates mainly on the effects of poisonous plants to livestock.
  6. [6]The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. — Huxley. A. · MacMillan Press · 1992 · ISBN 0-333-47494-5 ↩︎Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.
  7. [7]Ecocrop — http://ecocrop.fao.org/ecocrop/srv/en/home ↩︎Basic information on a wide range of useful plants, plus details of environmental needs where available.
  8. [8]Conservatory and Indoor Plants Volumes 1 & 2 — Phillips. R. & Rix. M. · Pan Books, London. · 1998 · ISBN 0-330-37376-5 ↩︎Excellent photos of over 1,100 species and cultivars with habits and cultivation details plus a few plant uses. Many species are too tender for outdoors in Britain though there are many that can be grown outside.
  9. [9]Toxic effect of some medicinal plants used in Moroccan traditional medicine — Mohamed Bnouham; Fatima Zahra Merhfour; Mostafa Elachoui; Ab · 2006 ↩︎
  10. [10]Handbook of Energy Crops — Duke. J. · - · 1983 · https://hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/duke_energy/dukeindex.html · ISBN - ↩︎Published only on the Internet, excellent information on a wide range of both temperate and tropical plants.
  11. [11]Complete Guide to Herbs. — Holtom. J. and Hylton. W. · Rodale Press · 1979 · ISBN 0-87857-262-7 ↩︎A good herbal.
  12. [12]The RHS Gardener's Encyclopedia of Plants and Flowers — Brickell. C. · Dorling Kindersley Publishers Ltd. · 1990 · ISBN 0-86318-386-7 ↩︎Excellent range of photographs, some cultivation details but very little information on plant uses.
  13. [13]RHS Dictionary of Plants plus Supplement. 1956 — F. Chittendon. · Oxford University Press · 1951 · ISBN - ↩︎Comprehensive listing of species and how to grow them. Somewhat outdated, it has been replaced in 1992 by a new dictionary (see [ 200 ]).
  14. [14]Invasive lant Species of the World; a reference guide to envoronmental weeds. — Weber E. · Biddles Ltd., King's Lynn, UK · 2005 · ISBN 0-85199-695-7 ↩︎Contains information on the habit and growth patterns of 450 recognised invasive species of plant.
  15. [15]Encyclopaedia of Herbs and their Uses. — Bown. D. · Dorling Kindersley, London. · 1995 · ISBN 0-7513-020-31 ↩︎A very well presented and informative book on herbs from around the globe. Plenty in it for both the casual reader and the serious student. Just one main quibble is the silly way of having two separate entries for each plant.
  16. [16]A Dictionary of Plants Used by Man. — Usher. G. · Constable · 1974 · ISBN 0094579202 ↩︎Forget the sexist title, this is one of the best books on the subject. Lists a very extensive range of useful plants from around the world with very brief details of the uses. Not for the casual reader.
  17. [17]A Modern Herbal. — Grieve. · Penguin · 1984 · ISBN 0-14-046-440-9 ↩︎Not so modern (1930's?) but lots of information, mainly temperate plants.
  18. [18]Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World. — Hedrick. U. P. · Dover Publications · 1972 · ISBN 0-486-20459-6 ↩︎Lots of entries, quite a lot of information in most entries and references.
  19. [19]Economic Botany. — Hill. A. F. · The Maple Press · 1952 · ISBN - ↩︎Not very comprehensive, but it is quite readable and goes into some detail about the plants it does cover.
  20. [20]Cornucopia II — Facciola. S. · Kampong Publications, California. · 1998 · ISBN 0-9628087-2-5 ↩︎The second edition of an excellent guide to the edible uses of plants, though it does not give any details of cultivation etc.
  21. [21]Medicinal Plants of China — Duke. J. A. and Ayensu. E. S. · Reference Publications, Inc. · 1985 · ISBN 0-917256-20-4 ↩︎Details of over 1,200 medicinal plants of China and brief details of their uses. Often includes an analysis, or at least a list of constituents. Heavy going if you are not into the subject.
  22. [22]A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants. Eastern and Central N. America. — Foster. S. & Duke. J. A. · Houghton Mifflin Co. · 1990 · ISBN 0395467225 ↩︎A concise book dealing with almost 500 species. A line drawing of each plant is included plus colour photographs of about 100 species. Very good as a field guide, it only gives brief details about the plants medicinal properties.
  23. [23]The Encyclopedia of Medicinal Plants — Chevallier. A. · Dorling Kindersley. London · 1996 · ISBN 9-780751-303148 ↩︎An excellent guide to over 500 of the more well known medicinal herbs from around the world.
  24. [24]Encyclopaedia of Medicinal Plants. — Chiej. R. · MacDonald · 1984 · ISBN 0-356-10541-5 ↩︎Covers plants growing in Europe. Also gives other interesting information on the plants. Good photographs.
  25. [25]Glossary of Indian Medicinal Plants (Including the Supplement). — Chopra. R. N., Nayar. S. L. and Chopra. I. C. · Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi. · 1986 · ISBN - ↩︎Very terse details of medicinal uses of plants with a wide range of references and details of research into the plants chemistry. Not for the casual reader.
  26. [26]The Herb Book. — Lust. J. · Bantam books · 1983 · ISBN 0-553-23827-2 ↩︎Lots of information tightly crammed into a fairly small book.
  27. [27]Tibetan Medicinal Plants — Tsarong. Tsewang. J. · Tibetan Medical Publications, India · 1994 · ISBN 81-900489-0-2 ↩︎A nice little pocket guide to the subject with photographs of 95 species and brief comments on their uses.
  28. [28]Dictionary of Economic Plants. — Uphof. J. C. Th. · Weinheim · 1959 · ISBN - ↩︎An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.
  29. [29]Plants for Man. — Schery. R. W. ↩︎Fairly readable but not very comprehensive. Deals with plants from around the world.
  30. [30]Flora of the British Isles. — Clapham, Tutin and Warburg. · Cambridge University Press · 1962 · ISBN - ↩︎A very comprehensive flora, the standard reference book but it has no pictures.
  31. [31]Flowers of Europe - A Field Guide. — Polunin. O. · Oxford University Press · 1969 · ISBN 0192176218 ↩︎An excellent and well illustrated pocket guide for those with very large pockets. Also gives some details on plant uses.