World's 'Most Poisonous Plant' Found In British Garden's Flower Beds

Gardeners frequently employ the castor oil plant in their displays, however it contains the poison ricin, which can be fatal if consumed.

A British woman who was out for a walk in a park was horrified to discover one of the planet's most lethal plants growing in a council flowerbed, reported Walesonline.

The woman found Ricinus communis, more commonly known as the castor oil plant, which contains a substance 6,000 times more poisonous than cyanide. Conwy Council groundskeepers planted flowerbeds in Queen Gardens Park in Colwyn Bay earlier this week, according to Media Wales. The plant was among the flowers and shrubs.

The castor oil plant includes ricin, a prohibited material that, in sufficient quantities, is regarded as a chemical and biological weapon. Although gloves should always be used when handling the plant, the seeds and seed heads present the greatest risk if consumed. It just takes between 1 and 10 seeds to cause death.

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, based on the amount of poison it takes to kill a human, the most poisonous common plant in the world is the castor bean (Ricinus communis). According to the Merck Index: An Encyclopedia of Chemicals, Drugs, and Biologicals (1997), a dose of 70 micrograms (2 millionths of an ounce) is enough to kill a person weighing 72 kg (160 lb or 11 st 4 lb).