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! 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. a 
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 
steckmen 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 most harm- 
1The Stock-poisoning Plants of Montana: A preliminary report. Bulletin 
No. 26, Division of Botany, U.S. Department of Agriculture. 
