No flowers were completed this week. This one still needs a centre.
And these are just parts that still need to be sewn together.
I did finish one more block from the Friday Block Party. This one is called, 'Album'. It is a 12inch block - very easy and only took me about half an hour or so.
I don't know if you noticed, I photographed the first flower on one of the Castor Bean leaves. This plant is huge. I grew this plant from a seed this spring. It is over 6 feet tall now and the leaves have close to a 3-foot span.
This plant is highly poisonous and should not be grown where children are present. Since I have no children around any more, I like to grow Castor beans for the wonderful tropical feeling they bring to my garden. When I was in the Dominican Republic a number of years ago, I took a safari tour. We came across a whole field of Castor Beans. I asked the tour guide about them and he told me they were not toxic - only the seeds were. Castor oil is made from them. But I don't very often listen to what I am told and I like to find things out for myself, so I learned that Castor Beans are considered to be one of the highest toxic plants in the world. The toxin is called, ricin, and it is found in every part of the plant. It can cause severe digestive symptoms. A single bean can kill a child. They cause diarrhea which can lead to dehydration. Castor Beans are in the spurge family - Euphorbiceae. The beans are not real beans.
Family: Euphorbiceae. Genus: Ricinus. Species: R. communis.
Common Name: Castor Bean
Common Name: Castor Bean
5 comments:
Thanks for the info.....
Beautiful plant and garden. You might get me to make some hexes.
the info about the plant is quite interesting!
I do love the look of that plant...although the extreme toxicity of it scares me!!!
Some days are like that, like where did the day go and what did I do?
My mother grew the Castor Bean plants one year. Luckily us kids weren't very adventuresome and never touched the beans.
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