14 



BULLETIN 12 45, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Figure g.- 



-Greasewood, Sarcotatus vermiculattn 



on the range 



plants 



grow to any considerable height — perhaps not more than 4 feet — and 

 the flower is less conspicuous than in most of the tall larkspurs. The 



color is ordinarily de- 

 scribed as a grayish 

 purple, due to the fact 

 that there is consider- 

 able white in connection 

 with the violet-purple 

 shades of the corolla. 

 This plant is responsi- 

 ble for most of the 

 deaths of cattle by 

 larkspur in Montana. 

 Plate 8 shows the tall 

 larkspur of the Pacific 

 coast region, thin-leaf 

 larkspur, D. trolliifoU- 

 v/m ; it has a much more 

 conspicuous and beau- 

 tiful flower than D. 

 cwcullcetwrrb. 



Barbey larkspur, Del- 

 phinium barbeyi, is per- 

 haps the most widely 

 distributed species of 

 the tall larkspurs and 

 is the plant which 

 causes the greater part 

 of the tall-larkspur losses in Colorado, Utah, and some other locali- 

 ties. Figure 8 shows the leaves and blossoms of this species, and 

 Figure 9 a group of the plants in blossom. 



In most cases the tall 

 larkspurs blossom dur- 

 ing the summer months 

 and do not die down 

 until they are broken 

 by the snows of the 

 early fall. The exact 

 time of blossoming dif- 

 fers with the species 

 and with the places 

 in which they occur. 

 In the mountains of 

 Colorado the blos^mi- 

 ing period is ordinarily 

 in July, and the seeds 

 are formed in August, 

 after which the plant 

 commences to dry up. 

 The leaves of the tall 

 larkspurs lose their poisonous properties after blossoming, so that in 

 most localities the cases of poisoning from these plants occur in the 

 spring or early summer. In the case of some species, however, espe- 

 cially in localities where the snowfall is heavy and remains late in the 



- *'-*- , 



Figure 



-A sheep which was killed 

 greasewood 



by extract of 



