Castor oil plant (castor bean plant)
Plants and Trees in the Bible
The castor oil plant can grow to a height of 3 meters (10 feet) and its dark green fan-like leaves can reach half a meter across. It produces bunches of prickly round seeds on a stalk.
Pictures
In the Bible
The Hebrew and Greek words for it, and every verse where each is used
קִיקָיוֹן qiqayon · 4 verses
What it stands for
Ancient people used the oil of the castor bean for medicine, often as a purgative. In the book of Jonah the plant is a key element of the dramatic confrontation between God and his strong-willed prophet.
More about it
The identity of Jonah’s qiqayon plant has been debated since the days of St. Jerome and St. Augustine. Zohary, Hepper, and Moldenke all advocate the castor oil plant (Ricinus communis) as the qiqayon, followed by NJB, FFB, various commentaries, and some Bible encyclopedias. But KJV “gourd” has a long history, including its use in the Septuagint (kolocuntha in Greek; see 5.2.6 Wild gourd (colocynth, egusi, bitter apple)) and in REB, NAB, Mft, and AT. The Vulgate translated qiqayon as hedera (“ivy”; see 1.10 Ivy) and that is used in Knox, but that rendering has not had further botanical support. In 1985 Robinson did an in-depth study of the literature going back as far as St. Jerome and votes hesitantly for the gourd (colocynth). Some scholars even suggest it could be an Assyrian word inserted in the story just to make it sound foreign, or even a made-up word.
Also in Ointment and balm (medicinal plants)
Sources
Plants and Trees in the Bible, Animals in the Bible and Human-made Things in the Bible © United Bible Societies, 2025 (adapted from Each According to its Kind: Plants and Trees in the Bible by Robert Koops, All Creatures Great and Small: Living Things in the Bible by Edward R. Hope, and The Works of Their Hands: Man-made Things in the Bible by Ray Pritz), CC BY-SA 4.0; adapted for eRhema