COMPOS1TAE (COMPOSITE FAMILY) 



429 



WOODY ASTER 

 Xylorhlza Pdrryi, Gray 



Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 



Time of bloom: Late May to June. 



Seed-lime : June to early July. 



Range: Western Wyoming, Colorado, and adjacent Utah. 



Habitat: Alkaline clay soil; range pastures. 



A most pernicious plant, because of its extremely poisonous 

 properties. A bulletin of the State Experiment Station of Wyo- 

 ming is authority for the statement that, in the sheep-raising industry 

 alone, that commonwealth suffers a yearly loss of more than three 

 million dollars, the greater 

 part of which is due to 

 poisonous plants on the 

 pasture ranges, this weed 

 being considered by many 

 stockmen the most nox- 

 ious of all, since at least 

 90 per cent of the animals 

 affected die. 



Roots thick, strong, 

 woody, branching more or 

 less just at the surface of 

 the ground; from these FIG. 299. - Woody Aster (X^ 



Parr^f). 



branching, woody crowns 



rise tufts of short branches, four to eight inches in height, forming 

 a dense, crowded stool. Leaves alternate, one to two inches long, 

 spatulate-linear, sessile, entire, light green, somewhat hoary with a 

 thin, soft woolly-hairiness ; usually they are spotted with a brown 

 fungus. Heads solitary, terminating the numerous young branches, 

 an inch or more broad, with many white rays and yellow disks ; 

 bracts of the involucre oblong lance-shaped, keeled below, long- 

 pointed, covered with ashy-gray hair. Achenes white-hairy, with 

 a bristly, yellowish pappus. When green and grownng, the whole 

 plant gives off an unpleasant odor and has a bitter taste. After 

 the flowers mature the plant withers and dries, becoming yellowish 

 brown in color and losing its noxious qualities, as thereafter the 



