IMPORTANT WESTERN BROWSE PLANTS 147 
to Alaska, California, Mexico, and the shores of Lake Superior, is 
probably the commonest and best known of the western honeysuckles. 
Distegia involucrata and Xylosteon involucratum are synonyms. 
L. ledebouru (syns. D. ledebourii, X. ledebourii, and L. involucrata 
ledebourz), a larger form typical of the Pacific coastal region, is also 
regarded as a synonym by many botanists. It is a freely branching, 
large-leaved shrub, about 3 to 6 feet high, erect or with the stems 
somewhat reclining and vinelike, and grows in moist situations, 
being common along creeks, about springs, in tidelands, and the like, 
often in association with willows and alders. In the West it is 
found as high as about 9,000 feet in Colorado and up to about 6,500 
or 7,000 feet in the Northwest. In general, this species is worth- 
less for all classes of livestock or else poor for sheep, but in a few 
regions—such as the Beaverhead of southwestern Montana and the 
Cache of southern Idaho—it has been observed to be fair or fairly 
good sheep browse and also slightly cropped by cattle. Pammel (95) 
quotes Greshoff to the effect that this species contains saponin and 
intimates that it may be poisonous. Stockmen occasionally report 
that it has poisoned their animals, especially cattle, but scientific 
proof is lacking. 
Chaparral honeysuckle (Z. interrupta) occurs on dry, chaparral- 
clad foothills and ridges of California and Arizona, the stems (ex- 
cept for the short and erect main trunk) clambering and more or 
less vinelike. In the Modoc lava-bed country Leland S. Smith, 
reporting its palatability to be zero, states that local stockmen con- 
sider the species to be poisonous. 
Utah honeysuckle (ZL. wiahensis, syn. Xylosteon utahense), known 
locally as big buckbrush, red twinberry, and bush or timber honey- 
suckle, is a low thin-leaved shrub 2 to 3 (occasionally 5) feet high. 
It grows in clumps and ranges in the high mountains, being widely 
distributed in timber types, especially along streams and under 
partial shade, where the stand is scattered but often abundant. Its 
palatability usually varies from worthless or almost worthless to 
low, but in portions of southeastern Idaho it is held to be fairly good 
sheep browse. 
ELDERS (SAMBUCUS SPP.) 
Sambucus is a genus of pithy-stemmed shrubs, herbs, or (usually 
small) trees and embraces about 42 valid species of which perhaps 
14 are indigenous to the United States, all but about 3 of these 
occurring in the Western States. They are often referred to as 
elderberries, and are typical of moist sites or where subirrigation is 
present. The herbage, more or less acrid at first and strong scented 
when bruised, sweetens in fall, especially when the first frost comes, 
and the browse value of the genus is largely though not entirely 
confined to the latter part of the season. Elder fruits of a blue or 
_ black hue are edible, at least when cooked, and are relished when 
_ ripe by birds and other wild life and sometimes by domestic live- 
stock. At least some of the red-fruited species have more or less 
poisonous fruit, and numerous cases are reported of children and 
others eating these red berries and becoming illasaresult. 
Blueberry elder (Sambucus cacrulea, syn. S. glauca) is ordinarily 
a many-stemmed bush 6 to 12 feet high, but occasionally it attains 
