palma christi

from The Century Dictionary.

• The castor-oil plant, Ricinus communis. See cut under castor-oil.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• (Bot.) A plant (Ricinus communis) with ornamental peltate and palmately cleft foliage, growing as a woody perennial in the tropics, and cultivated as an herbaceous annual in temperate regions; -- called also castor-oil plant.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun large shrub of tropical Africa and Asia having large palmate leaves and spiny capsules containing seeds that are the source of castor oil and ricin; widely naturalized throughout the tropics