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The Western Australian Herbarium’s collections management system, WAHerb, and DBCA’s flora taxonomic names application, WACensus, have been set to read-only mode since 1 October 2025. Recent taxonomic changes are not currently being reflected in Florabase, herbarium collections, or the census. Due to the rapidly approaching holiday season and associated agency and facility soft closures, along with the substantial work involved in data mapping, cleaning, and verification, the migration to the new collection management software is not expected to occur before 1 March 2026, when a further update will be provided. Please reach out to us if you have any questions or concerns.

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Ricinus L.

Reference
Sp.Pl. [Linnaeus] 2:1007 (1753)
Name Status
Current

Scientific Description

Family Euphorbiaceae.

Habit and leaf form. Shrubs, or herbs; laticiferous, or non-laticiferous and without coloured juice, or with coloured juice. Plants succulent, or non-succulent. Herbs annual. Mesophytic, or xerophytic. Leaves very large; alternate; spiral; ‘herbaceous’, or leathery, or fleshy; petiolate (petiole very long, glandular); non-sheathing; gland-dotted, or not gland-dotted; simple. Leaf blades dissected (deeply palmately lobed); pinnately veined, or palmately veined. Leaves with stipules, or without stipules. Stipules when present, connate into a sheath; caducous. Leaves without a persistent basal meristem. Leaf anatomy. Urticating hairs present, or absent. Stem anatomy. Nodes tri-lacunar, or unilacunar. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring, or anomalous; from a single cambial ring.

Reproductive type, pollination. Fertile flowers functionally male, or functionally female. Unisexual flowers present. Plants monoecious. Entomophilous.

Inflorescence and flower features. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in racemes, or in panicles. Inflorescences terminal, or axillary; loose, on thick peduncles, the male flowers below the females. Flowers shortly pedicellate; bracteate; small; regular. Free hypanthium absent. Hypogynous disk present, or absent. Perianth sepaline; 5; 1 -whorled. Calyx 5; 1 -whorled; gamosepalous (connate basally); regular; persistent, or not persistent. Fertile stamens present, or absent (female flowers). Androecium 20–1000 (i.e. ‘numerous’). Androecial members branched (filaments repeatedly branched); free of the perianth; free of one another, or coherent. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 20–1000; polystemonous; erect in bud, or inflexed in bud. Anthers dehiscing via longitudinal slits (cells globular); extrorse, or introrse; bisporangiate, or tetrasporangiate. Fertile gynoecium present, or absent (male flowers). Gynoecium 3 carpelled. The pistil 3 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; synovarious, or synstylovarious; superior. Ovary plurilocular; 3 locular. Styles 3; free, or partially joined; simple, or forked; apical. Stigmas 3, or 6 (red, fringed with tubercular projections); dry type; papillate, or non-papillate; Group II type. Placentation axile, or apical. Ovules 1 per locule; pendulous; epitropous; with ventral raphe, or with dorsal raphe; arillate; orthotropous, or anatropous, or hemianatropous.

Fruit and seed features. Fruit non-fleshy (woody); dehiscent; a capsule (trigonous, with long spine-tipped projections). Seeds endospermic. Endosperm oily. Seeds arillate. Cotyledons 2 (usually wider than the radicle). Embryo straight, or curved. Testa smooth. Seedling. Germination phanerocotylar, or cryptocotylar.

Physiology, biochemistry. Mustard-oils present, or absent.

Geography, cytology, number of species. Adventive. Australian states and territories: Western Australia, South Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Australian Capital Territory, and Tasmania. South-West Botanical Province.