RANUNCULACEAE (CROWFOOT FAMILY) 165 



Means of control 



Herding cattle away from places where the plant abounds during 

 the spring months, when it is most dangerous. But in some 

 localities it is considered that extermination by digging would be 

 feasible and a paying investment of labor. An instance is given by 

 Chesnut l and Wilcox of a Montana range where forty cattle had 

 died in a single month from eating this plant. " A careful inspec- 

 tion of this range showed that the Tall Larkspur was entirely con- 

 fined to a few areas of small size. It is believed that it could all be 

 completely exterminated by twenty-five days' work with a weed 

 digger designed for severing the roots at a short distance below the 

 ground. The expense of this labor would not exceed the value of 

 two cattle and this number is much less than the average annual 

 loss from the Tall Larkspur on this range." Similar conditions 

 prevail on many other ranges. 



PURPLE LARKSPUR 



Delphinium bicolor, Nutt. 



Other English name: Poison Weed. 

 Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 

 Time of bloom : May to August, according to altitude. 

 Seed-time: July to September. 



Range: Colorado and Wyoming to Oregon, northward to Alaska. 

 Habitat: Hillsides, bench lands, and mountain ranges Up to about 

 ten thousand feet. 



Very common in most parts of its range and much less restricted 

 in its habitat than the Tall Larkspur, this plant is considered by 

 stockmen even more pernicious. Sheep are most often its victims 

 but other stock also are affected. It is a small plant, six to fifteen 

 inches tall, smooth or only slightly hairy, rather stout for its height, 

 the stem rising from thick, fascicled, deep-set roots. Leaves deeply 

 five- to seven-parted, the segments again divided into nearly linear 

 lobes, which on the lower leaves have rounded tips but above be- 

 come more slim and pointed. They are succulent and liked by 

 grazing animals only when young, the time when they are mostharm- 



1 The Stock-poisoning Plants of Montana : A preliminary report. Bulletin 

 No. 26, Division of Botany, U. S. Department of Agriculture. 



