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Poisonous Plants Project

(never completed)

undertaken at the ANBG from March 1984 to April 1985

Poisonous Plants Project
A Community Employment Program funded 5 staff to undertake the work.
Staff included Richard Windsor, Odile Arman, Kathy O'Ryan, Sang Ho, Vivienne Thompson, Collette Barton and Anne Cooper.
Due to staff and management changes the project was never brought to fruition.

Summary notes on project by Collette Barton 19/4/85.
The project consisted of 3 sections:
1. Collection and preparation of material for publication - planned for an 85 p. book on poisonous plants growing on the NSW south coast and southern tablelands. This included the photography or collection of specimens, illustration of specimens, written information on the illustrated plants. It was also intended that 5 sets of plant specimens would be distributed to ANBG and ACT Govt sites.
2. Poisonous plants list. A list of all poisonous plants, native and exotic, known to be growing in Australia. The list of 700 plants was compiled from personal communications and published literature. (No paper copy exists?)
3. Bibliography on human poisonings by vascular plants and fungi. A list of references to books and journal articles available in Australia. Sources used were the ANBG Library holdings and a 'computer search'. (No paper copy exists ?)

Information was recorded onto D-Base II database on an Apple 2E computer. The floppy disks are held in Viual Resources at the Gardens and it is hoped that the data may be extracted at some stage.

The original b&w line drawings of plants by Sang Ho and Kathy O'Ryan which were to be included in the book are currently stored in the Visual Resources Unit of ANBG. Number of these c.90? These have been scanned and are available on the web at
http://www.anbg.gov.au/poison-plants/
The book was also to include 20 colour photographs by Kathy O'Ryan. Now incorporated into the National Plant Photographic Index.

The poisonous plants file held by the library comprises:
A collection of photocopies or bibliographic citations - arranged alphabetically by plant family name;
A set of photocopies of source publications, or title pages of source publications.
2 folders containing draft text & copies of illustrations of poisonous vascular plants for the South coast & southern tablelands publication.
1 folder containing draft text & copies of illustrations of poisonous fungi of the south coast & southern tablelands, also intended for the publication.
Notes on the project by Collette Barton
List of publications consulted.
Various other notes and documentation.

Librarian
ANBG, November 2003

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