Large annual or perenial herbs, often attaining tree proportions; monoecious
Leaves
alternate, petiolate, peltate, palmately lobed, lobes glandular-serrate; petioles adaxially glandular near base; stipules present, united to form a sheath, caducous
Inflorescences
leaf-opposed or subterminal, paniculate; male flowers in tight clusters in lower half; female flowers in open clusters in upper half, or rarely all female
Petals
0
Disc
0
Male flowers
pedicellate; calyx membranous, splitting into 3-5 valvate lobes; stamens up to 1000; filaments variously united to form much-branched structures
Female flowers
pedicellate; sepals 5, valvate, caducous; ovary 3-locular, with 1 ovule per locule; styles 3, ± free or connate at base, bipartite
Fruit
3-lobed, echinate or rarely smooth, dehiscing into 3 bivalved cocci; spines (if present) accrescent; endocarp crustaceous or thinly woody; columella persistent, 3-winged
Seeds
sometimes dorsiventrally compressed-ovoid, smooth, carunculate, usually marmorate; testa crustaceous; albumen fleshy; cotyledons broad, flat
x = 5
Nomenclature:
*Ricinus
L.
Linnaeus: 1007 (1753)
Henderson & Anderson: 206 (1966)
Radcliffe-Smith: 322 (1987)
Webster: 84 (1994)
Radcliffe-Smith: 156 (1996)
Distribution & Notes:
Global
: Monotypic: *
Ricinus communis
L., originally native to NE Africa, Castor Oi
Southern Africa
: Cultivated in warm parts, mainly in Northern Province, often occurs as an escape
References:
HENDERSON, M. & ANDERSON, J.G. 1966. Common weeds in South Africa.
Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa
37
LINNAEUS, C. 1753.
Species plantarum
, edn 1. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
RADCLIFFE-SMITH, A. 1987.
Euphorbiaceae
.
Flora of tropical East Africa
.
Euphorbiaceae
Part 1
RADCLIFFE-SMITH, A. 1996.
Euphorbiaceae
.
Flora zambesiaca
9, 4
WEBSTER, G.L. 1994. Synopsis of the genera and suprageneric taxa of
Euphorbiaceae
.
Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden
81
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