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Castor Beans
Ricinus
Ricinus communis, the castor bean or castor oil plant, is a species of perennial flowering plant in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae. It is the sole species in the monotypic genus, Ricinus, and subtribe, Ricininae.
Its seed is the castor bean, which despite the term is not a bean (as it is not the seed of a member of the family Fabaceae). Castor is native to the Horn of Africa, but it is now widespread throughout tropical regions (and widely grown elsewhere as an ornamental plant).
1 branches of this genus, most-observed first
See this branch on the Wheel of Life →
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the old herbals & bestiaries
The Ambonese Herbal, Vol. 3
Georg Eberhard Rumphius · 1743 · p.139
Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium
Maria Sibylla Merian · 1705 · p.99
Maria Sibylla Merian — Dissertatio de generatione et metamorphosibus insectorum Surinamensium (1719)
Maria Sibylla Merian · 1719 · p.107
Jan Moninckx; Maria Moninckx — Moninckx Atlas, vol. 5 (1686)
Jan Moninckx; Maria Moninckx · 1686 · p.4
Notable Commentaries on the History of Plants
Leonhart Fuchs · 1542 · p.374
Book of Herbs
Hieronymus Bock (Tragus) · 1546 · p.252
Notable Commentaries on the History of Plants
Leonhart Fuchs · 1549 · p.372
On Medical Materials in Six Books
Dioscorides · 1550 · p.640
On the Names of Plants
Hieronymus Bock (Tragus) · 1552 · p.360
De medicinali materia libri sex
Dioscorides · 1552 · p.648
Commentaries on the Six Books of Dioscorides on Medical Matter
Pietro Andrea Mattioli · 1563 · p.708
Commentaries on the Six Books of Pedanius Dioscorides on Medical Matter
Pietro Andrea Mattioli · 1565 · p.1421
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Ricinus in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 56740.