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ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #85457
Title: POISONOUS PLANT NAMES

Author
item WAGSTAFF, D - FDA,CFSAN
item Wiersema, John

Submitted to: Book Chapter
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/15/1998
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Scientific names of plants are essential for accurate communication about them. This is especially true for poisonous plants in order to rapidly access information about their toxicity and decide on an effective treatment following ingestion. This paper presents a discussion about the resources available for determining accurate scientific names and the principles upon which accurate names are based. In addition, instructions are provided on how to access the Internet web site where accurate scientific names and characteristics of poisonous plants are listed. The paper will provide the means for users to find information on poisonous plants by using accurate scientific names.

Technical Abstract: An International Checklist of Poisonous Plants is being compiled to define the set of vascular plants reported as toxic to humans or animals and to cross reference common names and scientific names in the plant toxicology literature. Nearly 5,000 scientific names and 12,000 common names are included at present. Some discussion of the derivation of scientific names sis provided. Access to the checklist database on the World Wide Web is discussed and to the GRIN database of the USDA, which is briefly described. Data from GRIN has been used to validate the taxonomy of the checklist.