Crook said that even green-skinned tomatoes and potatoes have very small concentrations of mildly toxic alkaloids that can cause intestinal discomfort if they are not cooked. The equipment used by Hall to transmit the image back to the UGA scientists for analysis was made possible by the Distance Diagnostics through Digital Imaging Project, a joint venture of the plant pathology department and the Office of Information Technology in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, which equips Cooperative Extension faculty across the state with computers, digital cameras and microscopes and trains extension faculty to use these tools to assess plant diseases and pest infestations. Each year, Georgia farmers and county extension agents submit more than 4,000 diseased or pest-infested plant samples to UGA for analysis by plant pathologists. Extension agents have been using digital imaging for long-distance diagnosis of plant disease and crop pest problems for some time, but the technology has been less used for identifying possibly poisonous plants. The child was taken to the emergency room at Dorminey Medical Center in Fitzgerald, spent the night in the hospital and was released the following day in good health.
Different plants have different compounds.
And animals eat poisonous plants, too. In the past few days, we've worked with the School of Veterinary Medicine on identifying plants that horses and cattle have eaten. The Herbarium has been heavily involved in identifying plants all over Georgia, and has done recent identification surveys at Fort Gordon, Fort Stewart, Stone Mountain Memorial Park and most recently, Callaway Gardens. Giannasi said that county extension agents should remain the first line of inquiry for people wanting to know the identity of suspicious plants. But in emergency situations, the UGA Herbarium will continue to act as another line of defense against the toxins of the plant world.