IMPORTANT WESTERN BROWSE PLANTS 31 
leaves and seeds are the first to be eaten by the sheep and cattle when they 
| enter the winter pastures. The spiny branches are also browsed to the ground. 
| This salt sage is apparently more resistant to strong alkali than almost any of 
the others, as it often occurs on “ greasewood lands ” containing a large amount 
of sal soda. 
Professor Jepson (65, pt. 4) alludes to the resistant properties of 
shadscale to overgrazing in the following paragraph: 
After losing their fruits the branches of the short panicle become rigid 
| and spinescent. Such naked spiny branches persist for several years and 
) _ provide considerable protection for the bush against the attacks of grazing ani- 
| mals. All the shrubby species exhibit similar characteristics in greater or 
' less degree, but in none other of our species is the spininess so effectively 
developed as in A. confertifolia. 
‘Big saltbush (A. Jdentiformis), sometimes called quailbrush, is 
perhaps the largest of our native saltbushes, often reaching a height 
of 8, 10, or even 12 feet, and about half as much in breadth. It isa 
typical desert plant ranging from California, through southern 
Nevada and Utah, to Arizona and northern Mexico. It is grazed 
by livestock principally from December to July, when other feed 
is short, particularly at times of spring drought when the normal 
crop of succulent annuals fails. At such periods the species is some- 
times subjected to heavy browsing. The large size, diffuse form, 
large ovate leaves, lack or but mild development of spinescent 
branches, and abundance—especially on river benches where cattle 
are wont to congregate—make this species one of considerable value. 
Although brittle and subject to rather severe injury from close 
grazing it is usually not exposed to yearlong cropping and 1s able 
normally, with proper management, to recuperate during the inter- 
vals of nonuse. 
Nuttall saltbush (A. nuttalliz) is a low leafy shrub, seldom over 
3 feet high and usually not over half that height, occurring in bad 
lands, alkaline plains, and other dry sites from Saskatchewan to 
Colorado and Nevada, at elevations of 4,000 to 7,500 feet. Few 
plants are more alkali-tolerant than this species. Sheep are very 
fond of it, especially in fall, winter, and spring, and the seedlike 
fruits are reputed to be notably fattening. Although it is deep 
rocted and withstands grazing satisfactorily, too heavy use is liable 
to exterminate it, for the bushes are small and rather easily broken 
and all but the heavier stems and branches are edible. It is re- 
ported as providing the greater part of the all-winter forage in 
the Red Desert of Wyoming (92), and in that State (94) is ranked 
as the most important native saltbush and described as a rather 
aggressive species. 
WINTER FATS (EUROTIA SPP.) 
Winter fat (Lurotia lanata), commonly called also white sage, 
winter sage, feather sage, and American eurotia, is a bushy-branched 
shrub, 1 to 3 feet high (fig. 4), ranging from Saskatchewan and 
Manitcba to western Nebraska, Colorado, western Texas, California, 
and Washington. The herbage, at least during the main growing 
season, 1s densely beset with rather long, matted, branched hairs, 
whitish at first and later rusty. The species is essentially one of 
the lower plains and valleys, growing in dry soils that are often 
moderately impregnated with white alkali or saline material. In 
