Plant Deemed to be Dangerous 🍁 Brought Home - Shhh

You may remember many scenes in the series "Breaking Bad" where Walter made a powder from these magical beans that, when processed, become a deadly poison. This is the plant!

When I smuggled this plant into my home, I had no idea what it was. I only knew that it was beautiful. I know from my experience in the woods of Illinois that leaves that are shiny can cause a rash, like poison ivy does. For that reason I try not to touch these leaves when they are small and shiny.

The largest leaves can get as big as a turkey platter.

They grow to twelve feet tall. My largest one is about five feet tall and it got that big through the winter time. Here is my largest, and first one.

These were all grown from seed, which is an interesting story in itself. I will get to that story in a bit. Let me show your some pictures of the three that I have growing on my terrace now. Here is the medium size one (below).

This is what the baby leaves look like - again - beautiful. This is the tiny leaf from the middle of the plant above.

This one was just moved into a pot that has a withering tree in it. I am trying to plan for when these get really big. I will need to get a tree pot for the largest one soon. The smallest of them all (below) will also need a larger pot very soon. Here it is growing right next to my purple cabbage plant and some radishes.

So What is the Plant?

I have no idea of what this plant is called, scientifically or otherwise, but I do know it is the same plant that Walter White was talking about. Why? Because I stole a flower top from one of these at the nature reserve in South America. It was on the table on the terrace for some time. I was trying to propagate one of the leaves - it failed. Then one day, I heard a BB Gun going off outside, on my terrace. This all happened toward the end of last summer.

The BB gun sound was the opening of the fuzzy pods from that flower top. I kept hearing it and did not know what it was. Then I noticed, when I was sweeping, that there were beans all over the floor. It was like a scene from the movie "Alien"

So what do I do? I plant one of them. The photos above are the result of that story. I am sure I will have some giants by the end of this coming summer. Expect more posts on this plant.

Lastly. I know that this plant is the source of where we get castor oil and if anyone knows how that stuff is made, the process, I will do a post on attempts to make that substance. It is one of the best laxatives in the world. When I was young, most parents gave their kids castor oil to drink if they were constipated. That is absurd! You need only rub a small amount on the skin anywhere on the body and it will loosen up the plumbing. It is also a good sleep aid. A drop in the belly button before bed and you sleep like a rock.

I hope you enjoyed this post. I had not written anything on this plant, outside its natural environment, until now. I am not sure how people would feel about it growing on my patio due to its reputation.