Poisonous Plants and How to Live with Them – an online talk

Do you know which native and cultivated plants are poisonous?

This talk will highlight some of the most deadly, showing how man has used them around the world for good as well as evil: for hunting and pest control, as medicine, in criminal trials, and for murder.

In the UK, many poisonous plants are valued for their ornamental and structural roles in our homes and gardens, parks and countryside. These plants are also a potential source of food for many organisms and they produce chemicals as a defence against being eaten. Some of these plant toxins will be explored during the talk, as an introduction to the numerous ways in which they can affect humans and other animals.

It will end with an overview of plant poisonings in the UK and some ideas for managing poisonous plants if, for example, you have young children.

Liz will draw on her two books, Poisonous Plants: A Guide for Parents and Childcare Providers (Kew Publishing, 2010) and Plants That Kill: A natural history of the world’s most poisonous plants (Kew Publishing, 2018) and her many years working for the Poisons Unit in London during which she advised on plant poisoning cases and worked on practical ways to reduce the number of accidental poisonings.

Dr Elizabeth Dauncey

Tickets: Donation only please. We will send out the link after bookings end, please check your junk mail.

Please book via the Eventbrite ticketing system here: Poisonous Plants and How to Live with Them – An online talk Tickets, Thu 28 Oct 2021 at 19:00 | Eventbrite

The SLBI is a registered charity for botanical education. It supports people of all ages and backgrounds in learning about plants. By making a donation with your booking you will help to sustain our work with school children, families and the wider community. As a small charity, any amount you can give, large or small, will be warmly appreciated and make an enormous difference. Thankyou.