HEIRLOOM CASTOR BEAN, 10 Seeds per Order, Red Foliage, Specimen Tree, Deep Purple Leaves, Tropical Plants, Indoor Plant, Fast Growing

SAY GOOD BYE TO MOLES AND VOLES IN YOUR GARDEN! Great plant to have in your garden if moles are a problem. The plant is naturally toxic and you want have to use traps or pesticides to get rid of underground pests. A gift from mother nature to deal with moles and voles in and around your prized plants!

With oversized, tropical-looking leaves and bizarre seed pods, castor bean is an exotic addition to the ornamental garden. The only member of the genus, Ricinus communis is in the Spurge Family (Euphorbiaceae). The word ricinus is Latin for “tick”, used for this plant name because of the superficial resemblance of the seeds to a particular species of European tick. Castor bean is native to tropical east Africa around Ethiopia, but has naturalized in tropical and subtropical areas around the world to become a weed in many places, including the southwestern U.S. Plants are typically found in moist, well-drained soils in disturbed areas, such as along river beds and roadsides, and in fallow fields or at the edges of cultivated lands.

Castor bean is an evergreen herbaceous or semi-woody large shrub or small tree. This robust tender perennial can grow to 40 feet tall, developing woody stems over a few years in frost-free climates. Because of its rapid, vigorous growth, it is easily grown as a warm season annual in temperate climates, but it rarely exceeds 6-10 feet in a single growing season. This fast growing plant tends to grow straight up at first, developing branches later in the season to form a well-proportioned shrub with sturdy stems and a dense canopy. The plant is killed when the temperature drops below 32F. Unlike many members of the euphorbia family, this plant does not have milky latex sap, but has a watery sap.

he alternate, star-shaped leaves on long petioles can grow over 2½ feet across. Each palmate leaf has 5 to11 deeply incised lobes, with serrated edges and prominent central veins. The species has glossy green leaves, but cultivated selections may have black-purplish, dark red-metallic, bronze-green, or maroon leaves, or bright green leaves with white veins.

Flowers are produced in dense inflorescences 8-18″ tall at the tops of the stems. The monoecious plants produce male flowers below the terminal female flowers. The flowers do not have petals and are not particularly showy. The ½ inch male flowers each have a cluster of many cream or yellow stamens that shed large amounts of wind-borne pollen. They senesce soon after shedding their pollen. The three conspicuous, star-shaped stigma lobes of the female flowers are bright red with feathery branches.