Ricinus communis - Native to the Mediterranean Basin, Eastern Africa, and India, the seeds from the castor plant are used to make castor oil. Being a surculose plant, it is able to grow new plants through basal shoots produced from the roots of the mother plant. This allows new plants to grow further away from the source. The castor plant is a shrub, but can grow to 12 meters. Shrubs differ from trees in one crucial form; shrubs having multiple trunks growing from the ground, trees have one.
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Occupying a strategic area in the Eastern Mediterranean, Cyprus has been the center of attention for several centuries. The Assyrians, Egyptians, Persians, Macedonians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Venetians, French, and British struggled and fought to control Cyprus. Since 1974, Cyprus has been partitioned; Northern Cyprus is controlled by Turkey and an independent Southern Cyprus retains close ties to Greece. The northern partition of Cyprus is not recognized as a sovereign entity.
