COLOR MAD CASTOR BEAN

The next assignment for my Art of Wild Abandonment: Bless this Mess class involves sketching some fall leaves. That can be a bit problematic if you live in Texas. Some years we get great fall color, others the leaves just drop. It's a bit early to tell either way, since we just got our first dips into the lower 40s here. I was scanning the yard from the balcony this morning, wondering what on earth I should sketch, when my eyes lit upon this little beauty -- a plant I really shouldn't be growing here.

This is Castor Bean, the plant from which they get castor oil. It hails from east Africa and India, and is not the least bit cold hardy. I grew it in Houston, where it was a standout focal point in my tropical garden, but even there it usually froze back each winter. I had no intention of ever planting it here.

But then one day I saw one sitting in a pot over at the feed store. It's a fairly dangerous plant to have around, as all parts of the plant contain ricin in varying degrees, and the seeds are especially toxic. I wouldn't even consider it if I had small children, or a pet that is allowed outside off-leash. But we don't have either, and I had really been missing those huge palmate leaves which vary from bronze to green...

the beautiful ruby stems and veins...

and these prickly fruit clusters that seem to have a phosphorescent glow to them. So I thought, maybe just this once, and brought it home. How was I to know it would reseed itself, and come back year after year, each time in a different location, sometimes in several? I don't remember it doing that in Houston. When I googled it just now, I discovered that the seeds, which are enclosed in those prickly pods, have a little tab or handle on them, which ants like to grab hold of and drag around. Perhaps they are responsible for its migration from spot to spot.

Anywho, I think its leaves and fruit will make a pretty good substitute for fall color in my sketching assignment, don't you?