蓖麻

bìmá
noun #34,700

Measure Word

Meanings

  1. 1 castor-oil plant (Ricinus communis)
  2. 2 castor bean

Examples

Bìmáyóu shì yī zhǒng chángyòng de gōngyè yóu.
Castor oil is a commonly used industrial oil.
Bìmá de zhǒngzi yǒu dú, bùkě shíyòng.
Castor beans are toxic and not edible.

Tips

culture
蓖麻 is the source of both castor oil (蓖麻, used as a laxative and industrial lubricant) and ricin (蓖麻毒素), one of the most toxic naturally-occurring compounds — famously the assassination weapon in the 1978 Markov umbrella case in London. The plant grows wild across much of China and was a wartime source of aviation lubricant.
memory
has the (grass) radical on top — almost any plant character has it. The (bamboo comb) shares the lower phonetic but with instead. The fan-shaped leaves of 蓖麻 do look a little like a comb's teeth radiating outward.

Stroke Order