title: Plant nurseries: a reliable resource for plant identification?
abstract: Poison Centers frequently rely on the assistance of local plant nurseries to identify unknown plants involved in exposures. The reliability and accuracy of utilizing this method has never been studied; therefore, our objective was to evaluate this primary resource of plant identification. A study was done in which callers were instructed to take plant samples to a local nursery for visual identification. Once the patient was treated according to our normal protocol, the plant specimen was sent to a botanist for a second identification. The botanist provided his identification results through a blinded process. The collected data was gathered from 68 cases that completed the necessary study criteria. In 58% of the cases, plant nurseries were an unreliable source for plant identification. These incorrect identifications resulted in the "undertreatment" in 24% of the exposures.
authors.affiliation: Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, Regional Poison Center, San Jose, CA 95128.
authors.forename: E S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Rondeau
authors.forename: G W
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Everson
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Savage
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Rondeau
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D010939:Plant Poisoning; D010947:Plants, Toxic