Australia's Poisonous Plants, Fungi and Cyanobacteria: A Guide to Species of Medical and Veterinary Importance

By Ross McKenzie

Australia's Poisonous Plants, Fungi and Cyanobacteria is the first full-colour, comprehensive guide to the major natural threats to health in Australia affecting domestic and native animals and humans. The overriding aim of the book is to prevent poisoning, as there are few effective treatments available, particularly in domestic animals.

The species have been chosen because of their capacity to threaten life or damage important organs, their relative abundance or wide distribution in native and naturalised Australian flora, or because of their extensive cultivation as crops, pastures or in gardens. These include flowering plants, ferns and cone-bearing plants, macrofungi, ergot fungi and cyanobacteria.

The plant species are grouped by life form such as herbs, grasses and sedges, shrubs, trees, and for flowering plants by flower type and colour for ease of identification. Species described have colour photographs, distribution maps and notes on confusing species, habitats, toxins, animals affected, conditions of poisoning, clinical signs and symptoms, post mortem changes, therapy, prevention and control. Symbols are used for quick reference to poisoning duration and available ways of managing poisoning. As further aids to understanding, poisoning hot-spots are highlighted and the book lists plants under the headings of animals affected and organs affected. A Digest gives brief details for all poisonous species in Australia.

This book is written in a straightforward style making it accessible to a wide audience including farmers, veterinarians, agricultural advisors, gardeners, horticulturists, botanists and park rangers, medical practitioners and paramedics, teachers, parents and pet owners. First published in 2012 as a hardback and made available in eBook format in 2020.

• Language: English
• Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING
• Release date: May 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9781486313884

Book preview

Australia’s Poisonous Plants, Fungi and Cyanobacteria

A Guide to Species of Medical and Veterinary Importance

What is there that is not a poison? All things are poison and nothing [is] without poison. Solely the dose determines that a thing is not a poison. … While a thing may be a poison, it may not cause poisoning. (Often paraphrased as: The dose makes the poison.).

Paracelsus [Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim] (1492–1541)

The animal species, the dose and the circumstances make the poison. (McKenzie’s Maxim)

Ross McKenzie (1949–)

Australia’s Poisonous Plants, Fungi and Cyanobacteria

A Guide to Species of Medical and Veterinary Importance

Ross McKenzie

© Ross Andrew McKenzie 2012

This digital edition published with corrections 2020

All rights reserved. Except under the conditions described in the Australian Copyright Act 1968 and subsequent amendments, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, duplicating or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Contact CSIRO Publishing for all permission requests.

The author asserts their moral rights, including the right to be identified as the author.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of Australia.

ISBN: 9780643092679 (hbk)

ISBN: 9781486313877 (epdf)

ISBN: 9781486313884 (epub)

Published by

CSIRO Publishing

Locked Bag 10

Clayton South VIC 3169

Australia

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Front cover: Castanospermum australe (black bean or Moreton Bay chestnut) flowers photographed in the author’s home garden. Raw seeds of this tree are poisonous to humans and livestock, but are processed and used as food by Aboriginal people (see p. 590). Lorikeets and honeyeaters feed safely on the flower nectar.

Back cover (left to right): Macrozamia lucida (zamia) female cone (p. 130); Isotropis cuneifolia (lamb poison) flower (p. 331); Solanum sturtianum (Sturt’s nightshade) flower (p. 556).

Set in 10/12 Goudy Old Style Std and Optima

Edited by Peter Storer Editorial Services

Cover design by Andrew Weatherill

Text design by James Kelly

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CSIRO Publishing publishes and distributes scientific, technical and health science books, magazines and journals from Australia to a worldwide audience and conducts these activities autonomously from the research activities of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of, and should not be attributed to, the publisher or CSIRO. The copyright owner shall not be liable for technical or other errors or omissions contained herein. The reader/user accepts all risks and responsibility for losses, damages, costs and other consequences resulting directly or indirectly from using this information.

The paper this book is printed on is in accordance with the standards of the Forest Stewardship Council® and other controlled material. The FSC® promotes environmentally responsible, socially beneficial and economically viable management of the world’s forests.

Dedication

To my wife Glenyth, with love and gratitude,

And in memory of

two good friends who shared my passion for the Australian bush

Jon Geeves (1954–1994) and

Colin Cornford (1931–2007)

and of Bella (1997–2010), our much loved dog.

Ball-in-mouth Bella,

Springing high and happily –

Light as summer breeze.

About the author

Dr Ross McKenzie PSM DVSc is a retired veterinary pathologist, toxicologist and research scientist from the Queensland Department of Primary Industries where he diagnosed and researched diseases of livestock for 36 years (1973–2009). Known as ‘the whistling pathologist’, he carried his fair share of the veterinary workload of the central diagnostic laboratory at Yeerongpilly in Brisbane, such as personally handling 10,000 case accessions from livestock disease investigations throughout Queensland during 1990–2002. He is also a retired conjoint senior lecturer from the University of Queensland where he taught toxicology to veterinary students for 14 years (1994–2008). His students called him ‘Toxic Ross’ and his 2007 class gave him a ‘Joie de Vivre’ award for making the study of toxicology enjoyable. They had thought it would be deadly! He earned a Bachelor of Veterinary Science degree (with Honours) from the University of Queensland at the start of his career, then the degrees of Master of Veterinary Science and Doctor of Veterinary Science some 20 years later, recognising his research achievements. He won the Australian Veterinary Association Excellence in Teaching Award for 2002, the Queensland Natural History Award for 2004 and, in 2009, was honoured with the Public Service Medal within the Order of Australia for his research in veterinary pathology and toxicology. He has authored over 100 scientific publications and has contributed to several international veterinary text and reference books. He is now an Honorary Research Associate of Queensland Herbarium and of Biosecurity Queensland. He is also a (very) amateur botanist and photographer. His family roots are in the earth of the Maranoa district of rural Queensland. He lives in Brisbane with his wife Glenyth and a garden containing many poisonous plants.

Ross McKenzie with Solanum quadriloculatum, June 2010. Photograph by Glenyth McKenzie.

Contents

About the author

Preface: why this book?

Acknowledgements

Warnings

Using this book

1Understanding plants and plant poisoning

2How to confirm tentative identifications

3Common poisoning profiles

Part 1 Poisonous cyanobacteria (blue-green algae)

4Poisonous cyanobacteria (blue-green algae)

Part 2 Poisonous fungi

5Poisonous fungi

Part 3 Poisonous vascular plants

6Poisonous ferns

7Poisonous cycads

8Poisonous grasses, sedges and mat-rushes

9Poisonous grass-trees

10 Poisonous grass-like herbs (iris and lily families)

11 Poisonous forbs (non-grass-like herbs)

12 Poisonous vines (climbing plants and creepers)

13 Poisonous shrubs

14 Poisonous trees

15 Digest of poisonous cyanobacteria, algae, slime moulds, macrofungi and plants in Australia

APPENDIX 1: Aids to identifying flowering plants

APPENDIX 2: The top killers

APPENDIX 3: Poisoning hot-spots

APPENDIX 4: Animals and the major species that poison them

APPENDIX 5: Body systems affected by the major poisonous species

APPENDIX 6: Australian states with major poisonous species

Glossary

References and further reading

Index

Preface: why this book?

Aims of the book

Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

Chinese proverb

This book is a tool to help people prevent or manage poisonings of themselves, their children and their domestic animals by plants, fungi and cyanobacteria in Australia. It is based on evidence from past poisonings and scientific research to understand how poisonings happen and how to deal with them. However, I earnestly urge readers to consult medical, paramedical, veterinary or botanical professionals to help them deal with actual or potential plant poisonings and to confirm plant identifications.

I have spent much of my working life studying plant poisoning and poisonous plants and advising animal owners and their professional advisors on diagnosing, managing and preventing plant poisoning in domestic animals. From 1994 to 2008, I was privileged to lecture the veterinary students of the University of Queensland on toxicology. Inevitably, plant poisoning was a major theme. The lack of a suitable reference book on poisonous plant identification, covering the whole of Australia and written primarily for non-professionals as well as the ongoing demand for information in this area, prompted me to write it.

Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est [Knowledge itself is power].

Francis Bacon (1561–1626). Religious Meditations. Of Heresies.

In this book I offer you knowledge, and within it the power to prevent the pain and suffering of plant poisoning, and sometimes to cure it. I have written it to help householders, gardeners, parents of young children, child-care workers, school teachers, bushwalkers, pet and livestock owners, landholders, land custodians, medical and paramedical professionals, veterinarians, veterinary nurses, agricultural advisors, horticulturalists, park rangers and students throughout Australia.

It aims to help you do two main things:

•to recognise the main poisonous plants, fungi and cyanobacteria that occur here and that may threaten the health of yourselves, your children, persons for whom you are responsible or your animals

•to understand the circumstances leading to poisoning so that you may have the best chance of preventing poisoning by informed decision making.

It also aims to give you information about:

•poisonous plants and plant poisoning in general so that you can place these plants into the context of the natural world that we belong to

•the toxins in the plants so that you can understand what happens when they poison animals.

•methods to manage poisonings when they happen, in partnership with your professional advisers

•plants that poison particular animal species, such as humans, horses and dogs

•plants that affect particular parts of the body, such as the heart, lungs or eyes

•the distribution of major poisonous species.

What is included? How were they chosen?

The poisonous living organisms covered in this book include what most people usually call plants, algae, ergots and mushrooms (or toadstools), and known by professional biologists as vascular plants, cyanobacteria (also known as blue-green algae and cyanophytes or cyanoprokaryotes), ergot fungi and macrofungi, respectively. One poisonous gall-forming fungus is also included. Plants affecting humans, their companion animals, their performance animals and their livestock are included and listed in Appendix 4. Plants affecting native Australian animals are also included.

Plants, fungi and cyanobacteria illustrated and described in detail were chosen because of their:

•capacity to cause serious illness in humans or other animals – threatening life, damaging important organs, such as eyes, or seriously distressing the patient

•relative abundance, wide distribution or both as native or naturalised plants in Australia,

•extensive cultivation as crops or pastures, or in gardens.

These choices were evidence-based; that is, made using information from actual poisoning cases and from chemical and experimental studies published in the scientific literature.

What is not included?

No book of this kind is perfect, so if you find errors or omissions, please tell me (through the publisher) so that future editions can be improved.

This book does not include detailed illustrated entries for all the known poisonous species in Australia. Chapter 15 (the ‘Digest’) lists all poisonous plants, fungi, algae and cyanobacteria in Australia that were known to, or suspected by, me at the time of publication. This list aims to put the major species into perspective and to provide a resource not readily available elsewhere. Further information on many species of lesser importance may be found in the publications in the ‘References and further reading’ list.

Poisonous mould fungi that grow in poorly stored or harvested foods and produce what are usually called mycotoxins are not included because they are often not apparent to the naked eye and require laboratory facilities for identification. This makes them unsuitable subjects for a field guide. For reviews of these, see Fungi of Australia Volume 1B, Introduction – Fungi in the Environment (Mallett and Grgurinovic 1996).

Plants causing contact dermatitis or allergy in humans are not included because reactions to those causing allergy are not consistent across all humans for a given degree of plant exposure; that is, the effect produced is not dose-related. Allergy in particular is a very large subject in itself and, by its nature, affects or does not affect individuals in a manner that is difficult to predict just from a knowledge of the chemicals in plants. Only a very few that cause contact dermatitis through urushiol poisoning or photosensitisation through furanocoumarin poisoning have been included. Information on these subjects is available in a variety of sources including Botanical Dermatology. Plants and Plant Products Injurious to the Skin (Mitchell and Rook 1979) which is now available on the internet at http://www.botanical-dermatology-database.info.

Woods that cause irritation of the eyes, nose and throat are not covered because identification of wood is a difficult specialist skill. Timber workers, carpenters and wood turners should refer to the booklet Timber and Health (Bolza 1976).

Plants causing taints (unpleasant flavours) in eggs, milk or meat are not included because these are minor effects. Some information on this topic has been gathered in Medical and Veterinary Aspects of Plant Poisons in New South Wales (McBarron 1977).

Fish-poisoning plants containing rotenone, saponins and other toxins discovered and used by Australian Aboriginal peoples to harvest stunned fish from small water bodies are not included because this is also a minor effect with limited impact. Some information on this topic has been gathered in Guide to the Medicinal and Poisonous Plants of Queensland (Webb 1948) and in Aboriginal People and Their Plants (Clarke 2007).

‘Side shoots’

Scattered through the book are short essays expanding on certain interesting and unusual aspects of some poisonous plants. In order of their placement in the book, these are

•Box 6.1. ‘Nardoo and the deaths of Burke and Wills in 1861’ (see p. 116).

•Box 7.1. ‘Human brain and nerve disease, cycads and flying foxes in the Pacific’ (see p. 119).

•Box 13.1. ‘Poisonous honey stops an army’ (see p. 476).

•Box 13.2. ‘Death by umbrella’ (see p. 487).

•Box 13.3. ‘Discovering the poisonous nature of Gastrolobium plants in Western Australia’ (see p. 501).

•Box 14.1. ‘Pituri – the Australian Aboriginal narcotic’ (see p. 628).

Acknowledgements

I am indebted above all others to my wife, Glenyth, for her love, forbearance, unstinting support and encouragement during the construction of this book and for her sharp eyes during plant-hunting journeys. Without her, this book would not have happened.

I am very grateful to the directors and staff of the Queensland Herbarium, past and present, for their support of my professional activities over several decades. In particular, Megan Thomas, a long-standing and valued friend, has repeatedly gone out of her way to help with questions botanical. I thank the directors and staff of the state herbariums in Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart, Adelaide, Perth and Alice Springs who provided access to their collections and help with locating plants for photography. The Council of Heads of Australian Herbariums generously granted permission to use information in Australia’s Virtual Herbarium for distribution maps.

The information used to compile this book has come partly from my own experience and learning, but mostly from the published, and sometimes unpublished, work of many botanical, mycological, chemical, medical and veterinary scientists, and the experiences of many other people as well. Some may recognise their own unique observations when they read them in the text. Sadly, I cannot acknowledge all these people by name due to lack of space and the ‘popular’ nature of a book written without formal references; nevertheless, I am truly grateful for their contributions.

My memberships of the Society for Growing Australian Plants and the Queensland Naturalists’ Club have inspired and helped me to learn about native plants and to put the poisonous species into perspective within the whole flora. Journeys undertaken with SGAP and QNC members have been a wonderful source of knowledge and photographic subjects. In particular, I am indebted to Verna and the late Colin Cornford, Megan Thomas and the late Jon Geeves, Beth McRobert, Christina McDonald, and Noel and the late Jill Chopping for their friendship, knowledge and enthusiasm.

For this book, Jeremy Allen, my professional counterpart in Western Australia, provided unfailing enthusiastic support over many years. Fiona and Rob Richardson gave generously of their time, expertise and image collection. Jenny Milson very kindly photographed plants and provided images and timely local support. David Forshaw and ‘Bill’ Sandiford energetically collected and supplied plants and images. Nigel Fechner, Tom May and David Ratkowsky provided valuable comments on particular fungi. Peter Bostock, Paul Forster and Ailsa Holland helped find obscure etymologies. Ailsa Holland and John Thompson provided advice on field recognition of particular plants. Lindsay Bell, John Finnie, Margaret Hastie, Tristan Jubb, Chris Materne, Kerry Moore and Gordon Reyer helped me to locate particular plants or specimens. Ian Hall and Roger Shivas kindly helped me locate particular fungal images. Molly Anderson, with permission from her mum and dad, Therese and Michael, generously posed with a yellow oleander. Jeremy Allen, Christine Freudigmann, Ailsa Holland, Roger Kelly, Bronwyn Lingard, Glenyth McKenzie, Tamara Smith, Trisha and John Stadtmiller and Hal Young read all or parts of the draft text and provided valuable feedback for which I cannot thank them enough. Any remaining errors of fact or judgement are mine alone. Ted Hamilton, my publisher at CSIRO Publishing, was professional, extremely patient and unfailingly encouraging. I thank him for his support and for maintaining faith in the ultimate goal. Peter Storer (copy editor), Tracey Millen (editorial manager), Pilar Aguilera (production manager), Perry Karipidis (typesetter) and Lachlan Garland (proofreader) all willingly contributed their professional expertise and good humour to reaching that goal. I am very grateful to them all.

Photographic credits

All the photographic images used in this book are mine, with the exception of those acknowledged below.

I am very grateful to the following people and organisations for allowing the use of their images. Copyright of these images is the property of these individuals or organisations, as indicated:

Anonymous (Queensland Herbarium): Brachyachne convergens clump

Will Andrew: Mixed Tychonema bornetti and Phormidium sp. cyanobacterial bloom

François and Marie-France Bahuaud: Helleborus viridis

Lindsay Bell (CSIRO): Vicia benghalensis

Todd Berkinshaw (Greening Australia): Xanthorrhoea semiplana

blickwinkel/Alamy: Cannabis sativa male flowers (close-up)

Joseph James Brock: Corchorus olitorius whole flowering plant

Nigel Cattlin/Alamy: Claviceps purpurea in Phleum sp. seed-head

Noel Chopping: Aseröe rubra with intact spore mass; Gastrolobium parvifolium in habitat; Phallus rubicundus; Phallus multicolor colony; Zieria arborescens flowering branches (Tasmania)

Travis Columbus: Brachyachne convergens single plant and flower-head

John Crellin (www.floralimages.co.uk): Aconitum napellus in habitat; Allium schoenoprasum flower-head; Allium vineale bulbils; Atropa belladonna fruit; flowering branch; Helleborus foetidus plant and flower; Iris foetidissima flowers

Geoff Cunningham: Ranunculus undosus

FloralImages/Alamy: Aconitum napellus inflorescence; Allium vineale inflorescence; Atropa belladonna flower; Iris unguicularis flower

Ian Davis: Lachnagrostis filiformis seed-head with galls

Ralph Dowling: Bowenia serrulata female cone

Murray Fagg: Argentipallium blandowskianum in habitat and flower-heads

Florapix/Alamy: Aconitum napellus garden plants

Genevieve Gates: Cortinarius eartoxicus

Ian Hall: Amanita phalloides (NZ)

Steffen Hauser/botanikfoto/Alamy: Cannabis sativa leaves; Convallaria majalis whole flowering plants; Daphne mezereum fruiting plant

Josef Hlasek (http://www.hlasek.com/floranahledy1an.html): Atropa belladonna in habitat; Cannabis sativa female plant tops; Convallaria majalis fruit and leaves; Daphne mezereum fruit and fruiting branch; Panaeolina foenisecii (three caps); Psilocybe semilanceata (among thistle leaves); Taxus baccata male cones and seeds ± arils

Ailsa Holland: Rubinoboletus species undescribed

imagebroker/Alamy: Convallaria majalis fruit

The late Emily Johnson, courtesy of Steve Stephenson: Panaeolina foenisecii (10 caps)

David Jones: Gelsemium sempervirens

JTB Photo Communications, Inc./Alamy: Helleborus niger flowering plant

Tristan Jubb: Field images of Corallocytostroma ornicopreoides galls on Mitchell grass; Cucumis melo subsp. agrestis fruit with dry vines

Glenn Leiper: Triunia robusta fruit

Tony Lyon: Psilocybe semilanceata (among grass)

Chris Materne: Acacia georginae pods (scanned)

Tom May: Amanita phalloides (Melbourne)

Alistair McTaggart: Claviceps purpurea in Hordeum vulgare

Jenny Milson: Acacia georginae and Acacia cambagei pods; Sarcostemma brevipedicellatum flowers

Sheldon Navie: Allium schoenoprasum flowering plant (mauve flowers); Amsinckia intermedia flowering stem; Aristolochia ringens flower; Lilium lancifolium flowering plant; Gomphocarpus fruticosus seeds; Robinia pseudoacacia seed pods

Hugh Nicolson: Alstonia constricta fruit; Dendrocnide excelsa flowers; Dendrocnide moroides fruiting plant, flowers and fruit; Dendrocnide photinophylla buds, flowers and fruit; Triunia erythrocarpa flowers and fruit; Triunia montana flowers; Triunia youngiana ripe fruit

John Noble: Dysphania glomulifera in habitat

Michael Palmer: Gastrolobium cuneatum flowering plant

Rimantas Pankevičius: Daphne mezereum flowering twig

Rob and Fiona Richardson: Amsinckia lycopsoides flowering stems; Arctotheca calendula seed-head; Cannabis sativa male flowering plant top; Lachnagrostis filiformis; Lythrum hyssopifolia; Pennisetum clandestinum flowers; Polypogon monspeliensis flower-head; Prunus dulcis trees and fruiting branch; Prunus laurocerasus; Rumex conglomeratus; Taxus baccata female tree branches

Malcolm Ryley: Claviceps africana sclerotia, sphacelia and Cerebella-infected sclerotia

‘Bill’ (Elizabeth) Sandiford: Schoenus asperocarpus in habitat, single flowering stem

Science Photo Library/Alamy: Cannabis sativa plants and female flower with leaf

Ros Shepherd: Daphne odora flowering shrub; Lilium lancifolium flower; Polypogon monspeliensis in habitat

Lee Taylor: Aphanizomenon bloom

Frank Taeker: Psilocybe subaeruginosa

Lui Weber: Dendrocnide excelsa fruiting branch; Dendrocnide moroides young leaves

Warnings

Protect yourself

Handling some of the plants, fungi or cyanobacteria listed in this book could cause you harm or illness. Do not expose your skin, eyes or other sensitive parts to cyanobacterial (blue-green algal) blooms, leaves of stinging trees (Dendrocnide species) or irritant plant saps (see Appendices 1 and 5). Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water after handling any fungi or suspected poisonous plants and before handling food. Observe the rules for picking and eating mushrooms (Chapter 5).

Natural does not mean harmless

Nature is neither benign nor malignant: ‘she’ is indifferent. All the poisons (toxicants) contained in the plants, fungi and cyanobacteria described in this book are natural. That is, they are produced within living organisms in nature, not by human industrial manufacture. It is mainly the animal species eating it and the amount (dose) eaten that determines if a plant or other organism will cause poisoning. So-called ‘organic’ foods may be certified as free from industrial chemicals, but they can contain natural poisons. For example, apple seeds and cassava tubers can generate cyanide naturally. See ‘What is a poisonous plant?’ (Chapter 1) for further discussion.

Have important identifications confirmed by professionals

Identifications made using this book should be regarded as tentative. In circumstances where action is to be taken based on the identification, I strongly recommend that you confirm your tentative identification by sending a suitable specimen to a state herbarium. See the guidelines for ‘Collecting and handling specimens for identification’ (Chapter 2) for the contact details of your closest state herbarium. These services were free to the public at the time of writing for small numbers of plant specimens, particularly for suspected poisonous plants in emergencies. Ask your nearest state herbarium about its own policy on charging for such services. Most will limit the number of specimens that they will identify for free for any one client at any one time.

Potentially harmful treatments should be given by professionals

Most therapies (treatments) described in this book are best given by a veterinarian for domestic animals or by a medical practitioner or paramedic for humans. These professionals are all trained for this work. Untrained lay persons applying techniques such as injections or dosing materials into the stomach (drenching) are at serious risk of causing unintended damage to the patient. For example, accidental dosing of drenches into the lungs is often fatal.

Herbicide use

Obtain up-to-date information

Information on herbicides is continually changing. Types available, their formulations and trade names, and their application methods and rates all change. If you are considering plant control using herbicides, consult the expert authorities in government departments in your state for up-to-date information. Ask weed control authorities in departments of primary industries or agriculture as a first step. See the section on ‘Where to get advice on herbicides and other weed control methods’ (Chapter 1).

Recognise potentially increased poisoning risks

Some poisonous plants become more attractive to animals, and so more dangerous, after being treated with a herbicide. Some toxicants, such as nitrate, may actually increase in concentration after herbicides are applied to plants. Animals should be kept away from herbicide-treated plants until the plants have died and their leaves have fallen.

Your legal responsibilities – Ignorance of the law is no defence

State and Commonwealth government laws and regulations can apply in five areas of concern regarding poisonous plants and fungi (see below). These laws and regulations can change over time, so no attempt is made in this book to set out the details. For accurate information, you should consult the acts and regulations for the Commonwealth and your state or territory directly. The following websites allow public access to current documents. For accurate interpretation of these documents as they apply to your circumstances, consult a lawyer.

Australian Commonwealth Legislation – http://australia.gov.au/publications/commonwealth-legislation

Queensland, Office of the Parliamentary Counsel – http://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/

New South Wales Parliamentary Counsel’s Office – http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/

Victorian Legislation and Parliamentary Documents – http://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/

Tasmanian Legislation Online – http://www.thelaw.tas.gov.au

South Australian Legislation – http://www.legislation.sa.gov.au

Western Australia State Law Publisher – http://www.slp.wa.gov.au

Northern Territory Current Legislation Database – http://www.nt.gov.au/dcm/legislation/current.html

Australian Capital Territory Legislation Register – http://www.legislation.act.gov.au/

Child protection laws

Under state government legislation, operators of childcare centres are required to ensure that children are not exposed to poisonous, irritant or harmful trees, plants and shrubs. For example, in Queensland these laws are set out in the Child Care Act 2002 and Child Care Regulations 2003 - Section 43 (1) (j).

Animal welfare laws

Under state government legislation, persons in charge of animals have a duty of care to protect their welfare. Theoretically, this extends to the prevention of poisoning. For example, off-loading hungry sheep into stockyards full of plants such as Portulaca oleracea (pigweed) that are well known to accumulate the potentially lethal toxins nitrate and soluble oxalates could be held in law to be a breach of that duty of care. For example, in Queensland, these laws are set out in the Animal Care and Protection Act 2001 and Animal Care and Protection Regulations 2002.

Threatened species protection laws

Certain species of poisonous plants, in particular species of cycads and Gastrolobium, are listed under state government environmental legislation as threatened (previously called rare and endangered). Restrictions apply to control measures aimed at protecting domestic animals from poisoning by these plants. For example, in Queensland, cycads are protected by laws set out in the Nature Conservation Act 1992 and the associated schedules in the Nature Conservation (Wildlife) Regulation 2006. Further, clearing on state land (leasehold land) requires a tree-clearing permit under the Vegetation Management Act 1999 and Vegetation Management Regulation 2000. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) controls the import and export of the endangered species listed (http://www.cites.org). This includes Australian species of cycads. The Australian management authority for CITES is the Commonwealth Minister for the Environment who currently acts on the advice of the Australian Government Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities.

Weed control laws – declared plants (noxious weeds)

Occupiers of private land are required by legislation in all Australian states and territories to control declared plants on that land. Almost all legislation on declared plants, noxious weeds or proclaimed plants is enacted at the state or territory level of government, but monitored and enforced at local government level. Local governments may have subsidiary legislation that applies only within their particular jurisdictions. Plants included in this book that are declared in state or territory legislation are indicated in the text. Enquiries should be directed to state and local weed control authorities. See the section on ‘Where to get advice on herbicides and other weed control methods’ (Chapter 1).

Drugs of abuse

Possession of certain hallucinogenic plants and fungi, in particular Cannabis sativa and Psilocybe species, may be an offence under Commonwealth and state government legislation.

Attention: Medical and Veterinary professionals

Botanical expertise

It is vital to accept that our core professional training in itself does not fit us to identify accurately all plants that we encounter in our professional lives. Accurate identification can be critical to positive case outcomes. In the interests of our patients and clients, we must view any identifications of plants or fungi that we make as only tentative. When appropriate to the case being managed, we should refer suitable specimens to the botanists and mycologists in state herbariums for a definitive identification (see Chapter 2).

Furthering evidence-based practice

As professionals trained in science, we owe it to our colleagues present and future, to our patients and clients, and to the community in general to add to the knowledge base that we all draw on for the effective management of poisoning cases. High standard evidence-based practice is impossible without it. Case reports published in peer-reviewed journals are a cornerstone of this knowledge base. Unpublished data are data lost. Please publish! Consequently, when you encounter a plant, fungal or cyanobacterial poisoning case that your research of the literature indicates as novel or worthy of recording, remember that the identity of the organism must be established in perpetuity by placing a voucher specimen in an appropriate institution for future reference. See the discussion of ‘Herbariums and voucher specimens’ (Chapter 1). The acquisition numbers of vouchers must be cited in any description of the case that you write in the peer-reviewed literature. Without this, your data may lose value if changes in taxonomy, nomenclature or both touch the name of the organism concerned.

Using this book

References to other information sources

Where other publications are mentioned in the text, their author and year of publication are given in brackets after their title. All these are listed alphabetically by surname of first author in the ‘References and further reading’ list.

Information provided on each fungus and plant, and why

The entries for the individual species of fungi and plants included are arranged in the 21 sections shown below. In some species profiles, some of these sections have been merged. Where appropriate, some entries deal with more than one species from the same genus.

Scientific name (‘preferred’ common name)

See ‘Name that plant!’ (Chapter 1) for a discussion of scientific and common names. If a plant has several common names, I have chosen one of the most frequently used or one of the most distinctive as the ‘preferred’ common name to simplify the listings in this book. This is my personal choice and does not imply that everyone should use this name.

Plants and fungi originating inside Australia are termed native. Those originating outside Australia are termed exotic. Exotic plants or fungi may be cultivated in gardens or as crops. If such plants or fungi have established themselves as self-sustaining populations in the environment independent of cultivation, they are termed naturalised. Many naturalised exotic species are regarded as weeds.

The symbols used with botanical names are as follows:

* : indicates a naturalised exotic plant or fungus, not originally native to Australia. These plants may also be cultivated in agriculture or gardens (horticulture), be weeds or be both. This is a symbol commonly used by convention to indicate such plants.

† : indicates a cultivated exotic plant or fungus, grown in agriculture or gardens (horticulture), and not known to be naturalised. This symbol is not conventionally used to indicate such plants, and its use for this purpose is confined to this book.

‡ : (in Chapter 15 only) indicates a rare species of Gastrolobium that is in danger of extinction. This symbol is not conventionally used to indicate such plants, and its use for this purpose is confined to this book.

Full scientific name and synonyms

Names given in this section include authorities (see ‘Authorities’ in Chapter 1). When appropriate, a list of subspecies or varieties is included. Synonyms (previous or alternative scientific names) have been included so that information sources that use one of these other names can be used with confidence, knowing that the same plant or fungal species is being dealt with. For a discussion of plant names and their use in this book, see the section ‘Name that plant!’ (Chapter 1). Plant names and authorities used in this book have been checked for accuracy against the listings in the Australian Plant Names Index (APNI) at http://www.cpbr.gov.au/apni (native and naturalised species) and the International Plant Names Index at http://www.ipni.org (cultivated species).

Scientific name meaning

Technically, the explanation of a scientific name’s meaning is called its etymology. Understanding what a scientific name means in plain English can help identification by focusing attention on important features of the plant or fungus. For example, the species name trichostachya in Pimelea trichostachya means ‘hairy spike’ in reference to the appearance of the flowers, thus separating this species from others in the genus Pimelea. Some plants and fungi can be named after prominent scientists or patrons of science. For example Swainsona plants are named after the physician Isaac Swainson (1746–1812) who designed and built a private botanical garden near London. These names are not helpful for identification.

Family

Recognising the family to which a plant or fungus belongs is often the first step to its accurate identification. Names of plant families used in this book are those used in the Flora of Australia series (Orchard 1999) with synonyms in parentheses. An exception to this is lily-like plants. Family names used in Flowering Plant Families of the World (Heywood et al. 2007) have been followed for these. A reassignment of many genera to families existing and new has recently been proposed by these authors. This re-arrangement has not been fully adopted by Australian herbariums and reflected in APNI at the time of writing, so I have decided to retain the previous arrangement for this edition of this book. Plant family names end with ‘-aceae’. Older family names given here as synonyms may end with ‘-ae’ or ‘-eae’.

Common names

Where there is more than one common name for a species, they are listed in this section. The ‘preferred’ common name is always listed first. Common names used for plants vary from place to place within Australia and the world. These lists are not exhaustive.

Effects, toxins and poisoning management summary

To help readers grasp the essentials of a poisoning as rapidly as possible, these symbols and short statements summarise important information. These are given for each common poisoning profile (Chapter 3) and for each fungus and plant profile in later chapters.

Onset and duration of poisoning effects:

Acute effects

Delayed onset or chronic effects

Toxins:

Toxins that cause the syndrome include: specific toxin names are listed.

Toxin that causes poisoning is unidentified.

Management options in decreasing order of likely successful outcomes:

Specific preventive measures available: brief details are listed.

Effective therapy: brief details are listed.

No specific therapy: general therapy can be applied, but no ‘antidotes’ are available.

Effective therapy is doubtful: general therapy can be applied, but the severity of the poisoning may be too great for a successful outcome in most cases.

No effective therapy.

Description

Professional scientific descriptions of plants and fungi use many technical terms for brevity and clarity (see the Glossary) and are impossible for non-professionals to understand without significant effort. I have drawn on many such descriptions and tried to ‘translate’ the technical terms into plain language for easy understanding.

Flowering and fruiting seasons

Flowers and fruits are critical for identifying plants because they are the basis of the classification system used by botanists. Sometimes fruits are particularly critical (such as for species of Solanum). The non-flowering plants included in the book – ferns, cycads, cypress pines and yews (Chapters 6, 7 and 14) – have no flowering season, of course. Ferns bear spores, but the others are cone-bearing plants (gymnosperms) that can produce cones at particular times of year. These ‘coning’ seasons are listed within this section.

Main distinguishing features

What sets this plant or fungus apart from all the others in its vicinity?

Confusing species

Which other plants or fungi can cause you to make mistakes when identifying this species?

Distribution and habitat: includes a map of native and naturalised species

When trying to identify a plant, both the description and the known distribution of the plant should be used in the process. The maps are included to help with this. These are based on information from Australia’s Virtual Herbarium (used with permission) – http://www.chah.gov.au/avh/. The maps were generated during 26–29 January and 15–18 February 2010. No maps are included for cyanobacteria because these are considered capable of blooming anywhere in Australia with suitable water conditions. The points on the maps are the locations at which the material was collected for the actual pressed and dried plant and fungal specimens in the permanent holdings of the state and Commonwealth herbariums in Australia: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Hobart, Darwin, Perth and Canberra. All identifications have been made professionally and are able to be verified by examining the specimens at the herbariums. Over time, any name changes are taken into account in the data used for the maps. Therefore, the maps broadly indicate the natural distribution of native and naturalised plants. They are less useful for cultivated plants and fungi and tend to under-estimate their distributions because the specimens of fungi and cultivated plants in herbariums are few compared with those of native and naturalised plant species. For this reason, maps of cultivated plants have usually been omitted. Important: The density of datum points on the maps should not be interpreted as an accurate measure of the density of plant populations in the field; the density of points on the maps reflects only the intensity of botanical collection of the plants; that is, the number of times that the plants have been actually collected and lodged in an official herbarium.

Weight of evidence for toxicity (toxicity confidence rank)

See the explanation of these ranks below.

Degree of danger (danger rank)

See the explanation of these ranks below.

Toxin(s)

Known toxins have known predictable effects on animal bodies. Knowing the toxin helps with diagnosis and management of poisonings. Identifying and measuring the concentrations of toxins in plants is a specialist skill of analytical chemists.

Toxic parts of the plant

Plants may protect all of themselves with toxins or only their critical parts, such as seeds – their guarantee of passing their genes to the next generation. Different animal species may eat different parts of a living plant. These choices influence which animals may be poisoned. Cattle, sheep and horses commonly eat leaves from shrubs and trees or all parts above ground from grasses and forbs. In doing this, they may eat flowers and fruits as well as leaves. Pigs may eat roots as well as other parts. Humans and birds may eat just fruits or seeds.

Animals affected

‘The animal species makes the poison’. See ‘What is a poisonous plant?’ (Chapter 1).

Conditions of poisoning

‘The circumstances make the poison’. See ‘What is a poisonous plant?’ (Chapter 1).

Toxic dose

‘The dose makes the poison’. See ‘What is a poisonous plant?’ (Chapter 1).

Clinical signs (and symptoms for humans)

See the definitions of the terms ‘clinical sign’ and ‘symptom’ in the Glossary. The individual effects of a particular poisoning taken together (the poisoning ‘syndrome’) can be significant for recognising (diagnosing) it. Recognising and assessing these effects in a living animal are specialist skills of medical and veterinary clinicians.

Post-mortem changes

Changes seen in the body of an animal that has died of poisoning, or in tissue samples taken from the body and examined in a laboratory, can be critical to recognising (diagnosing) a specific poisoning. Recognising and assessing abnormal changes and interpreting laboratory test results are specialist skills of medical and veterinary pathologists.

Management (therapy, prevention and control)

‘Prevention is better than cure’ is never more important than when dealing with plant poisonings. Often there is no cure.

Unfamiliar words and technical terms, symbols and abbreviations

If you find unfamiliar technical terms or words, please see the Glossary for explanations of their meanings. Most common abbreviations and symbols are explained in the Glossary. For an explanation of the abbreviations used with plant names in this book, see the section ‘Name that plant!’ (Chapter 1), and of the symbols used, see ‘Scientific name (‘preferred’ common name)’ earlier in this chapter.

Identifying a plant or fungus

Identifications made using this book should be regarded as tentative (see ‘Warnings’).

The life forms – plants, fungi and cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) – included in this book are grouped together firstly by life form, then (for plants with flowers) by flower shape and finally by dominant colour of flowers and mature fruit. See ‘Features that may confuse easy identification’ (later in this chapter).

You may simply leaf through the book, looking for illustrations that match the plant you are trying to identify, but the book is arranged to help you use a more methodical approach.

Firstly, choose the life form that the organism of concern best fits. Life forms used here are:

•cyanobacteria or blue-green algae – form scums on water or discolour water

•fungi

–macrofungi – mushrooms or toadstools

–ergots – fungal fruiting bodies in seeds of grasses including grain crops

–gall-forming fungi

•plants

–ferns

–cycads

–grasses, sedges and mat-rushes

–grass-trees

–grass-like herbs (irises and lilies)

–forbs (non-grass-like herbs)

–vines (climbing plants and creepers)

–shrubs

–trees

Then compare your plant or fungus with the descriptions and images to obtain the best fit. Important: If you need to rely on the identification for making important decisions, always have your tentative identification confirmed by a professional botanist or mycologist (see Chapter 2).

For flowering plants, pay attention to (in descending order of importance)

•flower shape and colour, and fruit (including seed-head, seed pod and seed capsule) shape and colour

•leaf shape, colour and arrangement on stems

See Appendix 1 for an understanding of a range of distinctive flower and flower-head shapes.

Precise, accurate identification of many plants requires microscopic examination of specimens. A hand lens that magnifies ×10 is an essential tool if you need to use small structures to tell the difference between two similar plants. I have tried to focus as far as possible on the structures and properties of plants that are apparent to the naked eye.

Keys

I have not tried to produce inclusive keys to the plants, fungi and cyanobacteria in this book for a number of reasons. People need lots of technical knowledge to use accurate and detailed keys easily and rapidly, and this is expertise that few people have mastered. One of the main reasons for this is that many technical terms need to be used to keep the keys to a manageable size. Also, features of plants that need a hand lens or a microscope to be seen are often essential for accurate keys. To be realistic, any key or keys would need to include a large number of non-poisonous species that could be confused with the poisonous species, making them too large to be useful. Keys that contained only the species in the book would be confused in many cases by similar non-poisonous species, and so made useless.

Features that may confuse easy identification

Flower colour

Flower colour is not a completely consistent feature of plants, so caution is needed. Plants often have a common flower colour, but with variations. For example, flowers of the poisonous species of Swainsona (Darling peas) are usually pink, but white and orange forms also occur. Flowers of Nerium oleander (common oleander) are most likely to be pink, but red, salmon and white forms are also grown. The most common natural variation in flower colour is its complete loss, thus producing white flowers. Cultivated ornamental garden plants are more likely to have variations in flower colour than uncultivated plants. See Appendix 1.

Flower shape

Flower shape (structure) is the most consistent feature used for identification, but cultivated ornamental garden plants may have ‘double’-flowered forms. These have flowers that contain more than the ‘normal’ number of petals, producing a fuller, often ‘frilly’ flower shape. Among poisonous garden plants, double-flowered forms of Nerium oleander (common oleander) and Rhododendron species (rhododendrons, azaleas) are grown. See Appendix 1.

Which plants can poison my child, pet or livestock?

See Appendix 4 for major risks listed by animal species. Minor risks are included in the ‘Digest’ (Chapter 15).

Which plants can poison the brain (or other organ of the body)?

See Appendix 5 for major risks listed by body system. Minor risks are included in the ‘Digest’ (Chapter 15). I have not listed plants or fungi by the clinical signs (or symptoms for humans) that they can induce in poisoned animals because such lists are very unwieldy and common signs and symptoms are often quite non-specific and unhelpful. Instead, I have focused on organs and body systems to try to condense and clarify the great variety of effects caused by plant and fungal poisonings.

Is this plant poisonous?

If you know the name of the plant (fungus or cyanobacterium), check the Index to see if your plant is included in the book. If you can’t find ‘your’ scientific name listed, it may be an out-dated synonym. To check this and to get the current name, consult the Australian Plant Names Index at http://www.cpbr.gov.au/apni (for native and naturalised species) and the International Plant Names Index at http://www.ipni.org (for cultivated species).

If you do not know its name, use this book to help obtain a name or see Chapter 2 to begin naming your plant. Important: Common names can be misleading. See Chapter 1 for a discussion of this point.

Table A. Toxicity confidence rankings.

How confident are we that this plant is poisonous?

In answer to the question ‘Is this plant poisonous?’, there are a number of ways in which plants can be known to be poisonous (see Chapter 1). The various types of evidence each carry a certain weight. The more evidence we have, the more confident we can be that a plant or fungus is poisonous. The weight of evidence for and against poisonous properties has been considered and a toxicity confidence ranking has been given to each plant or fungus in the book. The ranks used (1st to 4th) with the modifying terms applied to them are listed in Table A in order of decreasing confidence.

Table B. Assessing danger rankings

How dangerous is this plant?

A simplified degree of danger rating (danger rank) has been given to each plant, fungus or cyanobacterium by scoring the responses to the questions:

•How likely is it that the plant will be eaten? – The palatability of the plant. Scores: 2 = high, 1 = low

•How much needs to be eaten to produce poisoning? – The size of dose needed to produce illness (when known); the concentration of the toxin in the plant. Scores: 2 = a little, 1 = a lot

•How quickly does poisoning happen? – The rapidity of action of the toxin. Scores: 2 = acute, 1 = chronic

•How life-threatening is it? – The type and severity of effect the toxin has on the body. Scores: 2 = deadly, 1 = not deadly

•Can poisoned animals be cured? – The effectiveness of therapy for the poisoning. Scores: 2 = no, 1 = yes

Ranks were given to each plant in descending order of dangerousness (1 to 3), with the most dangerous (★★★) with scores 9–10, moderate danger (★★) with scores 7–8, and low danger (★) with scores 5–6 (Table B).

It is very important to understand that these ranks are only a rough guide and in practice would vary with animal species, toxins in the plant and circumstances of exposure or access to the plant. They apply only to the target animal species indicated in the text.

Is this known poisonous plant or fungus present in Australia?

If the plant or fungus you are interested in is not included in either the body of the book or the ‘Digest’ (look up the Index), it is unlikely to be known in Australia. It is possible to obtain up-to-date information of this kind on plants growing naturally, using the plant’s scientific name, by consulting Australia’s Virtual Herbarium at the internet site http://www.chah.gov.au/avh, and on fungi, using the fungus’s scientific name, by consulting Interactive Catalogue of Australian Fungi at the internet site http://www.rbg.vic.gov.au/dbpages/cat/index.php/fungicatalogue. Cultivated and garden plants can be difficult to research in this way. For them, consult your state herbarium directly or use the five-volume Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia (Spencer 1995–2005) and The Aussie Plant Finder (Hibbert 2004).

Which poisonous plants and fungi grow in my region of Australia?

See Appendix 6. Within the states, the distribution maps in the book show broadly where particular native or naturalised plants grow.

What is the most poisonous plant in Australia?

See Appendix 2 for my attempt to define the top killers.

When and where is plant poisoning most likely?

See Chapter 1 for a discussion of factors and Appendix 3 for a short list of the poisoning hot spots.

1 Understanding plants and plant poisoning

Does plant poisoning really touch me?

It is easy to understand how important plant poisoning is when it strikes our children or our pets – those with whom we are emotionally engaged. These impacts are painful, immediate, deep and personal. Less easy to realise is the importance to our own lives of plant poisoning of livestock such as cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry. Generally, we, the general public, are not emotionally engaged with the animals that we eat or that provide fibre for our clothes. Modern life separates us from them while they live. We encounter them only as food on our plates, as cuts of meat or plastic-wrapped chicken carcases in supermarkets or butcher shops or as woollen, mohair or alpaca jumpers in department or clothing stores. When poisoned, these animals suffer as much as, or even more than, any child or pet that chews on a garden plant. Farmers and graziers are emotionally engaged with them, of course, and suffer the emotional cost involved. But, as consumers, we are affected as well. As well as our community responsibility for the welfare of animals used for the community’s wellbeing, the cost of livestock production is increased when deaths or stunted growth follows encounters with poisonous plants. This leads inevitably to higher prices for meat and for the fibre used to produce our clothing. We are all touched by the impact of plant poisoning.

But there is a positive side to plant toxins. Certain poisons in some of the plant foods that we eat actually benefit our health. The plant’s way to protect itself from insects (see ‘Why are plants poisonous?’) can help us to ward off harmful chemicals. This is discussed in more detail in the section on ‘Plant and fungal toxins in human food and beverages’.

Name that plant!

Knowing the name of a plant accurately is the essential first step to knowing its properties. Get the name wrong and any further research that you do on its properties will be astray. The name that really counts is the scientific or botanical name (see below). For detailed instructions on establishing a plant’s name, see ‘Using this book’ and Chapter 2.

Advantages and disadvantages of common names and scientific names

Scientific (botanical) names are often unfamiliar and hard to pronounce and remember. Not only that, but these technical names for particular plants that you know may seem to be changing all the time, frustrating and confusing you! For example, ‘yellow oleander’ was named Thevetia peruviana until recently, but is now named Cascabela thevetia. However, obtaining the correct and current scientific name for a plant or fungus is vital because it allows your professional advisers (veterinary and medical practitioners, chemists and botanists) to search the scientific literature for accurate information. They can then use this to assess the plant’s toxic properties and to help manage any toxic risk it poses. Scientific names have the overwhelming advantages that they always refer to one, and only one, plant, fungal or cyanobacterial species throughout the world and can be traced to one or a group of scientists (botanists, mycologists or phycologists) who originated and published them. That is why they are given prominence in this book.

Common or vernacular names are usually easy to pronounce and remember and are often well known, but can be confusing for different reasons. They can be created by anyone. They are often of only local significance. Different, and often several, common names frequently apply to the same plant or fungus in different districts of the same country, and this is even more likely in different countries. One common name can refer to more than one plant, each with very different toxins. For example, in Australia ‘potato weed’ can mean Heliotropium europaeum containing pyrrolizidine alkaloids or one of a number of species of Solanum containing steroidal glycosides. Similarly ‘castor oil plant’ can mean Ricinus communis containing the toxalbumin ricin or Datura stramonium containing the tropane alkaloids scopolamine and hyoscine. A common name can give a misleading idea of the toxic properties of a plant. For example, in some places, the common weed Solanum nigrum (in the broad sense of this name), a mildly poisonous plant, is called ‘deadly nightshade’ – a name more properly applied to the much more toxic Atropa belladonna, which is rare in Australia. Again, Solanum mauritianum may be called ‘tree tobacco’ or ‘wild tobacco’, but is not a type of Nicotiana (the true tobaccos) and does not contain nicotine or other tropane alkaloids, but steroidal glycosides.

Scientific names and name changes

Names explained

In this book, both scientific and common names are given for the plants and fungi included. Scientific names are always given, but some plants and fungi do not have common names. The scientific name of a species of organism is in two parts, each based on Latin or Ancient Greek words or Latinised proper names such as that of the person first discovering it. This system of naming plants, fungi, bacteria and animals was established by the Swedish naturalist Linnaeus (Carl von Linné 1707–1778). The two parts are firstly the genus and then the species, for example Eremophila maculata – the genus name being Eremophila (combined from the Greek roots eremo- and -phila together meaning ‘desert-loving’) and the species name being maculata (from the Latin word macula meaning a spot, hence maculata means spotted). In interpreting the name of a species of plant (or other organism), the genus can be thought of as a sort of ‘family’ name and the species as a ‘given’ or individual name to distinguish one ‘family’ member from another. So, if we imagine that I am a species classified using this system, my name might be ‘Mckenzie ross’. In fact many Asian people use this system with the family (‘genus’) name coming first, for example Sun Yat-Sen from the Sun family. For brevity, when talking about a number of species together or the same species repeatedly, the genus name is often shortened to the first letter of the word. For example, Arctotheca calendula (cape weed) will be shortened to A. calendula. This is the same process that gives us the commonly used name E. coli for the full bacterial name Escherichia coli. Related genera (the plural of genus) are grouped into a plant family, whose modern scientific name ends in the suffix -aceae, e.g. daisies are in the family Asteraceae (also called Compositae) and grasses in the family Poaceae (also called Gramineae). Confusingly, you will see that the old names for families ended in the suffix -ae or -eae.

In biology, a species is defined as a group of like individuals (a population) who interbreed to produce fertile offspring. Breeding between individuals of different species may produce hybrid offspring, but these are infertile. The scientific name for a hybrid is a combination of the parent species’ scientific names, e.g. hybrid mother-of-millions is called Bryophyllum daigremontianum × B. delagoense or Bryophyllum × houghtonii. Fine distinctions of form may be seen within a species. Botanists indicate such different forms by using additional names, usually either subspecies (abbreviated as subsp.) or variety (abbreviated as var.); e.g. Pimelea simplex subsp. continua and Crotalaria medicaginea var. neglecta. A variety produced by artificial breeding for horticulture is called a cultivated variety, or a cultivar (indicated by the cultivar name given in single quotation marks); e.g. Duranta erecta ‘Sheena’s Gold’. The abbreviation ‘cv.’ was previously used for this term, but this is no longer accepted practice.

Authorities

In writing with precision about plants, their scientific names are given as genus and species, followed by their authorities (authors), which are the name or names of the scientist (or scientists) who first validly published a formal description of the plant. Usually authorities are abbreviated using a list of standardised abbreviations, e.g. L. stands for Linnaeus and R.Br. stands for Robert Brown, the botanist on Matthew Flinders’ ship HMS Investigator during 1801–03. In some cases author’s names are given in full. The use of authorities with scientific names is a check on the accuracy of use of the name, helps to define the plant referred to more precisely, and helps with the understanding of the history of classification of the plant.

Name changes

You may have seen the scientific name of a plant that you know changed to a new and unfamiliar name. This can certainly be frustrating (even for non-botanist professionals), but must be accepted if we are to understand the natural relationships between plants correctly. The science of naming living organisms is called taxonomy or systematics. The basic aims of taxonomy are to recognise and define all the different kinds of plants, fungi, cyanobacteria and other organisms living on Earth and to place them within a framework that allows us to understand the genetic relationships between species, accepting the evolution of species through natural selection first explained satis-factorily by Charles Darwin, and later independently by Alfred Russel Wallace. Botanists researching plants will change their scientific names from time to time for a number of reasons. These changes are strictly in line with two sets of international rules agreed among botanists – the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature and the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants. For more details, see Plant Names. A Guide to Botanical Nomenclature (Spencer et al. 2007). The name changes stem from new understanding of relationships between species. This new understanding is based on new information from discoveries of previously unknown plants, from re-examinations of plant collections in herbariums and increasingly from explorations of plant DNA, the chemical basis of inheritance. Out-dated or alternative scientific names are called synonyms. These may be given in brackets after the current name, preceded by the abbreviation ‘syn.’. Current information on the scientific names of native and naturalised plants in Australia is available from the Australian Plant Names Index (APNI) (http://www.cpbr.gov.au/apni). Information on scientific names of cultivated plants is available from the International Plant Name Index (IPNI) (http://www.ipni.org).

Herbariums and voucher specimens

Herbariums are scientific research institutions that employ professional botanists. They are the authorities on scientific knowledge about plants. They house large permanent collections of pressed and dried plants that are used as raw material for research into the names, relationships, distribution and properties of plants. In Australia, the state governments each support a herbarium in their capital city and there is a national herbarium in Canberra. University botany departments also have herbariums. Herbarium plant collections are vigorously defended against mould fungi and insects, such as booklice, that can rapidly destroy dried plants. Some of the actual plant specimens collected by Sir Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander on James Cook’s 1770 voyage in HMS Endeavour up the eastern coast of Australia are housed in Australian herbariums. These are still in useful condition, demonstrating that herbarium collections potentially have a very long life. They are a uniquely irreplaceable source of information for the future and deserve community support.

Pressed and dried specimens of many of the individual plants illustrated in this book have been placed in the permanent collections of state herbariums in Australia. These are called voucher specimens. They are a permanent physical record of the actual plant photographed. Their existence allows the correct current scientific name of the photographed plant to be re-determined whenever botanical research leads to name changes in the family, genus or species of the specimen. Where available, the Queensland Herbarium acquisition numbers (AQ numbers) of vouchers are given in the picture captions of this book. Voucher specimens are even more valuable when linked to published scientific papers describing natural or experimental plant poisonings and chemical investigations of plants for toxins. They ensure that the ongoing usefulness of the information in the publication is not diminished or lost through future name changes obscuring the accurate identity of the plants concerned. For further details, see ‘Name that plant scientifically, please!’ (McKenzie 2008).

What is a poisonous plant?

Broadly, a poisonous plant is one containing chemical substances in amounts that can harm or kill animals (including humans) eating it. However, the idea that there are two distinct types