LOCO-WEED 



Oxytropis Lamberti Pursh 

 PEA FAMILY 



The Loco-weed, although well-known in Western Canada, 

 is notorious rather than renowned. Its bad reputation is due 

 to its poisonous effects when eaten by sheep, cattle, and horses, 

 causing them to stagger in their gait, to walk in circles, and other- 

 wise behave as no well-regulated animals should. Sometimes the 

 death of the afflicted animals results. Yet there seems to be 

 some mystery about the plant, for over certain wide areas where 

 it grows one scarcely ever hears of a case of loco-poisoning, while 

 other parts of the country report such an occurrence frequently. 



The Loco-weed exhibits great variation also in form and 

 color, both among individuals in the same locality, and among 

 the types found in different localities. Our picture gives a general 

 idea of the aspect of the plant clustered leaves and flower-stalks 

 springing from a deep root, both leaves and stalks more or less 

 gray with silky hairs, and many pea-shaped blossoms borne in 

 spikes. Frequently, however, the spikes are denser and shorter 

 than those shown opposite, and, instead of light cream-colored 

 flowers such as this plant produced, the bloom may be purple 

 or reddish-purple. 



Although " beauty is what beauty does" the Loco-weed 

 is a pretty plant, and it has several handsome relatives. Foremost 

 of these is the Showy Oxytrope found commonly on dry prairies 

 from Manitoba to the Rockies. It may be distinguished from 

 the Loco-weed by its more hairy leaves, which are so densely 

 covered with long silvery hairs as to appear white; by its leaflets 

 which are borne in bunches of three to five instead of singly; 

 and by its more showy rose-purple flowers which are arranged 

 in more narrow and elongated spikes. Indeed, the Showy 

 Oxytrope (0. splendens) is well named, for with its shafts of bright 

 blossoms rising from a mass of soft, shining white foliage it forms 

 in June one of the most conspicuous .and splendid ornaments 

 of the dry prairie. 



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