Ricinus
 

Like most towns, my town council has several gardens and plantings
throughout the town. This year all their plantings include Ricinus which
are showing a fine crop of red spiky berry things. I thought that parts of
this plant are highly dangerous? Should I be phoning the council and
expressing my concern, or am I over-reacting?

"Gilly" wrote in message
...
Like most towns, my town council has several gardens and plantings
throughout the town. This year all their plantings include Ricinus which
are showing a fine crop of red spiky berry things. I thought that parts
of
this plant are highly dangerous? Should I be phoning the council and
expressing my concern, or am I over-reacting?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You are over-reacting. Yes, their seeds are poisonous
but so are many plant products. There is nothing about this castor oil plant
that invites being eaten.
The last fatality was in a school, in north Devon, during a time when
these seeds were supplied in large quantities to schools, by the Nuffield
foundation, for experimenting in science classes ~~1970ish. One child
ignoring all instructions.
I have not seen the seeds actually being produced in the UK.
Interestingly the flowers have no petals.
Best Wishes Brian.

On 26/8/05 10:21 pm, in article ,
"Gilly" wrote:

Like most towns, my town council has several gardens and plantings
throughout the town. This year all their plantings include Ricinus which
are showing a fine crop of red spiky berry things. I thought that parts of
this plant are highly dangerous? Should I be phoning the council and
expressing my concern, or am I over-reacting?

Totnes had them in a large roundabout last year. Indeed, we sell them.
They're marked poisonous, of course. Many French municipal plantings
include them. While Ricinus is undoubtedly very poisonous, forbidding their
use leads us into the realms of cutting down chestnut trees in case children
use the conkers and hurt each other, or removing window boxes from buildings
in case someone bumps their heads on them.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)

In article ,
Sacha wrote:
On 26/8/05 10:21 pm, in article ,
"Gilly" wrote:

Like most towns, my town council has several gardens and plantings
throughout the town. This year all their plantings include Ricinus which
are showing a fine crop of red spiky berry things. I thought that parts of
this plant are highly dangerous? Should I be phoning the council and
expressing my concern, or am I over-reacting?

Totnes had them in a large roundabout last year. Indeed, we sell them.
They're marked poisonous, of course. Many French municipal plantings
include them. While Ricinus is undoubtedly very poisonous, forbidding their
use leads us into the realms of cutting down chestnut trees in case children
use the conkers and hurt each other, or removing window boxes from buildings
in case someone bumps their heads on them.

I doubt that they are much more poisonous than laburnum, monkshood,
potatoes and so on. If I recall, the number of potato fruit that is
lethal is about the same as the number of castor oil plant seeds.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"Gilly" wrote in message
...
Like most towns, my town council has several gardens and plantings
throughout the town. This year all their plantings include Ricinus which
are showing a fine crop of red spiky berry things. I thought that parts
of
this plant are highly dangerous? Should I be phoning the council and
expressing my concern, or am I over-reacting?

I wonder if the town council could be prosecuted under the Anti-Terrorism
statues for manufacturing a dangerous poison which could be used in a terror
attack?

But seriously, apart from being the source of ricine (after processing) the
plant is also the source of castor oil.

regards
Ned

The message
from "Ned" contains these words:

But seriously, apart from being the source of ricine (after processing) the
plant is also the source of castor oil.

yearnpine

Which has the most delightful bouquet when used as a lubricant in an
infernal combusting injun...

/yearn/pine

--
Rusty
Emus to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

Jaques d'Alltrades writes:

The message
from "Ned" contains these words:

But seriously, apart from being the source of ricine (after processing) the
plant is also the source of castor oil.

Which has the most delightful bouquet when used as a lubricant in an
infernal combusting injun...

Aircrew in the first global unpleasantness certainly stayed
regular. The rotary engines got through quite a bit of castor oil each
flight...

Anthony

Brian wrote:
I have not seen the seeds actually being produced in the UK.
Interestingly the flowers have no petals.


mine used to (no longer grow them since planting style of garden switched
away from "tropical" to "Mediterranean") set seed every year. I never used
the seed as I was growing mixed named varieties and was not sure if they
would come true.

pk

"p.k." wrote in message
...
Brian wrote:
I have not seen the seeds actually being produced in the UK.
Interestingly the flowers have no petals.


mine used to (no longer grow them since planting style of garden switched
away from "tropical" to "Mediterranean") set seed every year. I never used
the seed as I was growing mixed named varieties and was not sure if they
would come true.

pk
_____
Interesting. Many thanks for letting me know. I have seen the fruits
before but never seen formed seeds. Perhaps I didn't look hard enough?.
Best Wishes Brian.