I had 2 large Castor oil plants/trees in the garden, they've been there for ~5 years exploding their seeds all over the place. I learnt they have a lot or ricin in them and since I got a new fury friend and they were exploding >30 seeds a day all over the garden, I chopped them down.

I only had the 2 plants/trees, none anywhere else.

Within a week of chopping them down I've had 10~60 sprouts a day.

What is the phenomena called which prevents seedlings sprouting while the source is still alive, but when it dies it triggers a sprout command?

I find it totally amazing bcos some are in a completely different part of the garden separated by an entire house, and contained in a separate elevated earth bed.

sorry i can't help

Fly is that mould under your Ext ceiling or just photo or paint.

BTW i love your house

I think its a pretty normal thing for some plants and they send out suckers from the plant stem, or in this case, from the roots. Its a common way for plants to replicate.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basal_shoot

The local council told me that if they pruned the tree out the front it would just send out more suckers. I think this would have been preferable, but I think it was more of an excuse for them to not do anything about it.

I have planted grafter passionfruit vines around the yard and they send up suckers all over the place from the original (non useful) rootstock plant.

I think you'll find the seeds would have sprouted anyway. It was probably just the wrong time of year to sprout before.

I think castor oil plants are a declared noxious weed here in WA. and I would have chopped out the first two as soon as they appeared, and certainly before they seeded.
If they turn up in the paddocks and you ignore them for a year, the next year you will have then everywhere.
Crows pick up the seeds because they look like beetles, and crap them out for miles around.
Same with arum lilies. The seeds look like corn on the cob and crows love corn, so they eat them, fly off to a tree somewhere and then crap out the seeds.
Next year you end up with a whole lot of new arum lilies under the trees.

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pweedas said..
I think you'll find the seeds would have sprouted anyway. It was probably just the wrong time of year to sprout before.

No. I've had them for at least 4 years, but I think 5, not a single other sprouted... chopped them down within a week, literally 100's and every day I yank out more.
They grow really fast 10cm every day.

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FormulaNova said..
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basal_shoot

Seeds mate, 1-40 meters away from the original plants.

The original parent plant must have some kind of electrical or chemical maker preventing germination of the seeds... what I find truly amazing is the distance.
I can understand close proximity so as not to suffocate the area around itself, but 40m away on the other side of the house?
Btw when the seed pods explode, they fling the seeds 1-40 meter, I could hear them landing on the roof.

Aren't those seeds poisonous?

Is this in NSW? Has the recent rain and heat made them germinate and its just a coincidence?

I have just come back from WA after a few weeks, and the plants have gone nuts in my yard. Specifically a mango tree that has hardly grown in ten years has grown a lot, and I think excess heat and rain, i.e. humidity, has made it flourish. Now I only need to wait another 20 years for it to produce mangoes...

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FlySurfer said..

The original parent plant must have some kind of electrical or chemical maker preventing germination of the seeds... what I find truly amazing is the distance.
I can understand close proximity so as not to suffocate the area around itself, but 40m away on the other side of the house?
Btw when the seed pods explode, they fling the seeds 1-40 meter, I could hear them landing on the roof.

You might be right on the chemical bit. I think some plants do have such a mechanism, but it's usually to suppress other species and it's own species is immune.
Native T tree is one. Pasture wont grow under it but T tree does real well.

So,.. it's exactly as I thought,.. I really don't know why it is.

Plants can smell if their buddy in the area is under attack and boost their chemical balance in response.

sciencenetlinks.com/science-news/science-updates/plants-smell-danger/
I can't see why the host plant couldn't trigger germination.

four to eight seed lethal

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castor_oil_plant

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricin

Gorgeous house Fly, your abode not you.....and yes, evil noxious pricks of things that are very hard to kill.

Best of luck.

Got a male and a female mango paired up sotired?

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mazdon said..
Got a male and a female mango paired up sotired?

Ahhh... no.... but it sounds like that I need to from your response!

It sounds like I need to read up on it, but what is your experience?

Why I mentioned the mold ,I think mold would be more a health issue than-that plant + the cause could be attacking your investment.

Hope I'm wrong

It aint my residence... I just used it to show a photo of the Castor plant.

Red Circle with arrow marks the trees, and the little patches are where they sprout... arrow on the roof points to the back yard... no mold.

Not so much mine but my friends experience. I had no idea there was even the 2 sexes!!

For fruit, definitely need the 2 I believe.


As per the castor, amazing things are plants.

I am not suprised at all.
If you looks closely some of them seems to have small legs

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FlySurfer said..
It aint my residence... I just used it to show a photo of the Castor plant.

Red Circle with arrow marks the trees, and the little patches are where they sprout... arrow on the roof points to the back yard... no mold.

mow ya lawn

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choco said..
Aren't those seeds poisonous?

Ask Walter White and Jessie Pinkman.

I spoke to the gardener... he told me to let them grow, and most will die with only a couple getting big. Once they get big enough just pull them out, and problem gone.