IMPORTANT WESTERN BROWSE PLANTS 33 
or harrowing. These abundant fruits, or seeds, despite their over- 
coat of cotton-hairy fuzz, are much relished by grazing animals and 
are evidently nutritious and fattening, adding greatly to the range 
_value of the species. Jared G. Smith (124) states that “stock grazed 
on lands where winter fat grows thrive well and are said to be re- 
markably free from disease because of the tonic properties of this 
plant.” Another valuable characteristic of winter fat is its rapidity 
of growth, considering that it is a species of arid habitat (xero- 
phyte), the herbaceous stems often attaining a length of 1 or 2 feet 
during the growing period. These slender season’s twigs and the 
small, narrow leaves are both consumed by the animals. Bidwell 
and Wooton (9) mention this bush as a valuable goat feed, and 
Cotton (22) refers to its value for horses in the “ John Day Beds” 
of Yakima and Douglas Counties, Wash. It is also one of the more 
important winter-browse species for elk in the Jackson Hole country. 
A number of analyses of winter fat have been published (74, p. 
42; 9, p. 24), all showing remarkably high percentages of crude 
protein. 
HOP-SAGES (GRAYIA SPP.) 
Spiny hop-sage (Grayia spinosa, syn. G. polygaloides) is a small, 
bushy shrub, 1 to 3 feet high, variously known also as grayia, Gray’s 
saltbush, spiny sage, horsebrush, and saltbrush. It has somewhat 
mealy herbage, small but rather succulent leaves, and slender, pale 
twigs that are sharp and spinelike at the tip. The species is distrib- 
uted from Washington to REDE: Utah, Wyoming, and Montana. 
Although spiny hop-sage often grows where there is considerable 
moisture, it is more essentially a desert plant. It is common in alka- 
line situations, especially in the sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) 
type from about 2,500 feet elevation in the Northwest up to about 
7,000 feet in Utah and Nevada. Frequently in association with vari- 
ous species of Chrysothamnus it is found in a great diversity of soils, 
such as limestones, valley lands, baked alkali, coarse gravel, dry 
heavy clays, and scabby areas. 
Where this bush occurs in any quantity it is an accession to the 
forage cover. It is eaten in fall, winter, and spring by all classes of 
livestock and is considered good for both sheep and cattle, which 
crop the buds and leafy twigs with avidity and fatten notably on 
the copious harvest of flat, winged fruits. The female (pistillate) 
plants thus are most desirable as forage. Sheepmen regard the leaves 
as a “strong” feed, producing a solid fat. Nelson (92) lists it 
among the choice species of the Red Desert region in Wyoming, and 
notes that the leaves and enormous quantities of seeds fall early and 
are collected by the wind into little drifts or piles under the bushes 
and in the hollows of the ground. When sheep are fed over such 
ground these piles are the first to disappear. The leaves on the sea- 
son’s twigs tend to be larger than those on the old growth, and it is 
quite possible that the pruning of proper grazing is beneficial and 
improves the forage. 
Spineless hop-sage (G. brandegei), a small, nonspiny congener 
with longer and narrower leaves and much smaller fruits, occurs in 
western Colorado and eastern Utah and is reputed to be one of the 
27259°—31——_3 
