Gastrolobium

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Gastrolobium is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family. There are more than 100 species, most of them native to the southwest region of Western Australia. Many Gastrolobium plants contain monofluoroacetate, the toxin behind the poison known as 1080, which caused livestock deaths in Western Australia starting in the 1840s. Botanist James Drummond helped investigate the cause and linked the poison to York Road poison (G. calycinum) and Champion Bay poison (G. oxylobioides). In the 1930s and 1940s, researchers C.A. Gardner and H.W. Bennetts identified more toxic species, leading to the publication of The Toxic Plants of Western Australia in 1956. The base chromosome number for Gastrolobium is 2n = 16. The group includes many species, with some statuses still unresolved.