Naturally occurring potassium fluoroacetate

Steyn describes the symptoms in animals caused by gifblaar as follows  

Steyn then goes on to say that there are no specific post-mortem lesions. It is stated that less than an ounce of fresh leaves is enough to kill a sheep. 

A larger plant (D. toxicarium) which grows in West Africa also gives rise to a toxic principle which is known to cause paralysis of the lower extremities and abohtion of tendon refiexes in human beings. 

An interesting letter, passed on to the author from the High Commissioner of South Africa, states that D. cymosum grows in the Transvaal, north of Pretoria (i.e. in frost-free areas). In the spring, because of the depth of its roots and its access to deep water supplies, it is practically the first thing to turn green on the parched veld. The poor half-starved cattle, which do not 

Mr Pole Evans also offers the following information In the Bechuanaland Protectorate, especially in the neighbourhood of the Hunters Road near the Southern Rhodesian Border a larger growing species D. veneatum is found. This plant is well known to the natives of this area as Makow, and is reported to be just as poisonous as D. cymomm.  

In South Africa, mainly in the Pretoria r on, a poisonous plant called gifblaar grows (PI. I (a) and (6)). Gif blaar (Dichapetaium cymosum) is a deep-rooted plant, its root system penetrating into the soil to a depth of 60 ft. For this reason the plant sprouts early in summer before the first rains have fallen. It is said that green patches of gifblaar are very attractive to stock grazing on the dry veld. 

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