to the southeastern Mediterranean Basin, Eastern Africa, and India, today it is widespread throughout tropical regions. In areas with a suitable climate, castor establishes itself easily where it can become an invasive plant and can often be found on wasteland. It is also used extensively as a decorative plant in parks and other public areas, particularly as a "dot plant" in traditional bedding schemes. If sown early, under glass, and kept at a temperature of around until planted out, the castor oil plant can reach a height of in a year. In areas prone to frost it is usually shorter, and grown as if it were an annual. However, it can grow well outdoors in cooler climates, at least in southern England, and the leaves do not appear to suffer frost damage in sheltered spots, where it remains evergreen. It was used in Edwardian times in the parks of Toronto, Canada. Although not cultivated there, the plant grows wild in the US, notably Griffith Park in Los Angeles. Cultivars Selections have been made by breeders for use as ornamental plants (heights refer to plants grown as annuals) and for commercial production of castor oil. Ornamental cultivars 'Carmencita' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit 'Carmencita Bright Red' has red stems, dark purplish leaves and red seed pods; 'Carmencita Pink' has green leaves and pink seed pods 'Gibsonii' has red-tinged leaves with reddish veins and bright scarlet seed pods 'New Zealand Purple' has plum colored leaves tinged with red, plum colored seed pods turn to red as they ripen (All the above grow to around tall as annuals.) 'Impala' is compact (only tall) with reddish foliage and stems, brightest on the young shoots 'Red Spire' is tall () with red stems and bronze foliage 'Zanzibarensis' is also tall (), with large, mid-green leaves ( long) that have white midribs Cultivars for oil production: 'Hale' was launched in the 1970s for the US state of Texas. It is short (up to ) and has several racemes 'Brigham' is a variety with reduced ricin content adapted for Texas, US. It grows up to and has 10% of the ricin content of 'Hale' 'BRS Nordestina' was developed by Brazil's Embrapa in 1990 for hand harvest and semi-arid environments 'BRS Energia" was developed by Embrapa in 2004 for mechanised or hand harvest 'GCH6' was developed by Sardarkrushinagar Dantiwada University, India, 2004: it