In 1988 the publication of a Catalogue of Plants for the Adelaide Botanic Garden was the first time a listing had been made for the Adelaide Botanic Garden from a computerised database. This publication was the second in a series of publications using the database known as DAISY, the first had been a Catalogue for Wittinga Botanic Garden in 1987. In 1991 the catalogue for the Botanic Gardens of South Australia was completed with the publication of the Mount Lofty Botanic Garden catalogue and a revised Wittunga catalogue in 1995.

Previous catalogues of the Adelaide Botanic Garden has been produced in 1859 by George Francis the Gardens' first Director, and by Richard Schomburgk, the Gardens' second Director in 1871 and 1878. Noel Lothian published a Centenary year edition in 1955.

In 2004 the DAISY database was replaced with BG-BASE. Not only was the adoption of this new database a security for the future but it also allowed the garden curators the opportunity to maintain their collections independently from the Plant Records Officer. With the adoption of BG-BASE and broader ownership of the plant record keeping tasks the importance of producing another Catalogue as a reference was clear. In 2010 the Botanic Gardens of South Australia published a complete catalogue for all three Gardens from BG-BASE.

The Catalogue of Plants software and online search tools available today are extensions of the 2010 Catalogue of Plants. The Garden records are regularly updated electronically to make accurate and timely Catalogue of Plants records available both online and on your desktop.