THE WHORLED MILKWEED AS A POISONOUS PLAI^^To 6 



which were identified as Asclepias galioides or Asclepms verticillata. 

 He stated that it was known in that region as the " beeweed " and 

 that it was regarded as very poisonous to stock. 



A statement was sent to the department from the Coconino Na- 

 tional Forest, Arizona, which indicated that considerable nnmbers 

 of sheep were lost in that locality from poisoning by " milkweed." 

 Assistant Botanist Eggleston, while at Mount Carmel, southern 

 Utah, in 1914, was told by Bishop Sorenson that he had seen calves 

 poisoned by the whorled milkweed. 



A trip was made b}^ the senior author in 1916 to New Harmony, 

 Utah, on the edge of the Dixie Forest, where losses were said to 

 occur from Asclepias subulata.^ Stockmen in the neighborhood of 

 New Harmony gave somewhat detailed accounts of the deaths of 

 both sheep and cattle from this milkweed, which grows in abun- 

 dance near the irrigated lands. Arrangements were made with some 

 of them to send a quantity of the milkweed to the experiment station 

 at Salina, Utah, for experimental work. The material failed to 

 arrive, and consequently the experimental work was not undertaken 

 so early as had been planned. 



In the fall of 1917 some Colorado papers gave detailed accounts 

 of the loss of 800 sheep in the neighborhood of Dolores and it was 

 stated that the place where the animals died had been known as a 

 " death patch." From the Montezuma National Forest details were 

 obtained of the losses, which, it appeared, did not occur in Dolores 

 but just east of Cortez. It seems that losses had occurred there in 

 preceding years, but at that time, December 7, 736 head out of 1,000 

 died and it was supposed that the milkweed was the cause. The 

 locality was visited by the senior author in October, 1918, and a 

 careful examination of the region was made in company with Gordon 

 Parker, supervisor of the Montezuma National Forest, and County 

 Agent Newsom. It was found that the place where the loss occurred 

 in 1917 was an area a short distance from Cortez, in which Aschpius 

 galioides grows in great abundance. Mr. Newsom said that deaths 

 had occurred repeatedly on this area and that within 3 or 4 years 

 from $35,000 to $45,000 worth of sheep had been lost. This case was 

 reported also by Glover, Newsom, and Bobbins. It was found that 

 there were thick patches of the weed in other localities near Cortez, 

 and that there had been other cases of poisoning. From stoclanen it 

 was learned also that there had been serious losses near Dolores. 



The Grand Junction (Colo.) Daily Sentinel of March 20, 1918, 

 reported that about 60 head of sheep near Wliitewater, Colo., had 

 been poisoned by hay which contained milkweed. The case was 

 investigated in the following May by a member of the department's 



1 It may be noted that systematic botanists have determined that the milkweed of that 

 locality is A. galioides j not A. su'bulata. 



