Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Poisonous plants


Recently I planted a beautiful plant not knowing what it was. All I knew was that the leaves were a deep red wine color (when fully grown) and that it would look great in my garden. It turned out to be a Castor Bean plant, a very deadly plant to animals and humans. Thanks to Jake at the Northeast Florida Paradise blog for identifying the mystery plant.
I Google the Castor Bean plant and found out that the beans are poisonous if eaten by animals or humans and they can cause death, that warning was enough for me; for sure it had to go.

8 comments:

Sunita Mohan said...

Yes, it is considered poisonous but I think that's only if consumed in large volumes (not sure, please check). Castor oil made from this plant is used as a laxative and is commonly available in medical stores.
The Castor bean plant grows like a weed here in Mumbai. I don't think I've heard of any deaths attributed to it yet.

gittan said...

I also think that it's only when they are consumed in large volumes. I grow them every year and just love those plants. they can get real big if you give them some space.

Darla said...

I have a burgandy plant without an ID. Some said castor bean, I don't know.......

Green thumb said...

I think Sunita has very rightly stated the facts pertaining to Castor Plant. Quoting Wikipedia-'Although the lethal dose in adults is considered to be 4 to 8 seeds, reports of actual poisoning are relatively rare. It grows very commonly as a weed in my place too, but the incidents of human toxicity are never heard of! It is very commonly used in Ayurvedic drug preparations too.

thepoisongarden said...

Castor beans are strongly emetic and eating them would most likely just make you vomit. Even ricin itself, the poison in the beans is not really effective unless injected into the bloodstream.

In the UK, local authorities plant them in parks and municipal flower beds.

My Chutney Garden said...

Thanks for this. I believe that I have seen this growing wild in Trinidad as well. The red stem is quite distinctive.

Rusty in Miami said...

Thank you all for your comments, maybe the web page I was reading was exaggerating a bit, but to be on the safe side, I’ll keep it out of my garden.

Unknown said...

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