Important Poisonous Plants of Australia

The environment of Australia is highly geographically, climatically, and biologically diverse, and it contains many plants poisonous to animals. Veterinarians should be thoroughly familiar with the poisonous plants in their geographic area and their effects. The Atlas of Living Australia contains images of many of these plants.

The combination of hungry, tired, cold, or stressed animals and a lack of familiarity with the local flora has been a common cause of epizootics of plant poisoning in Australia. The introduction of production animals into geographically different areas should be done with caution and with knowledge of the types of poisonous plants that may be present. Historically, the grazing movement of production animals along Australia's traveling stock routes has been associated with outbreaks of plant poisoning. An important consideration in these situations is the availability of safe, palatable forage. Provision of adequate amounts of safe, palatable feed may decrease the risk of plant poisonings.

Many important poisonous plants in Australia are highly adapted to drought. Often they are the last plants to disappear during the early stages of a drought and are the first to appear after the drought breaks. Likewise, many important poisonous plants in Australia are highly adapted to fire. Fire is often a trigger for germination for many fire adapted plants in Australia. This, combined with hungry animals, increases the risk of outbreaks of plant poisonings. Again, the provision of adequate amounts of safe, palatable feed may decrease the risk.

Plants recorded as definitely or probably toxic to animals in Australia total > 1,000. This table includes only those plants with a notable impact. It is essential, in many cases, to confirm the identity of suspected poisonous plants by having a representative specimen carrying flowers, fruit, or both (or spores in the case of ferns) examined by a professional botanist, who may be consulted at state herbariums in Australian state capital cities. Several of the non-native plants (eg, foxglove, oleander) that are listed in Poisonous Range Plants of Temperate North America are also found in Australia.