IMPORTANT WESTERN BROWSE PLANTS 157 
affected animals. Marsh states that the related Aplopappus fru- 
ticosus (syns. Bigelovia coronopifolia, Isocoma coronopifolia, I. 
jruticosa), known as burroweed in southeastern Arizona, and which 
ranges from western ‘Texas to southern Arizona and Sonora, produces 
the same harmful effect as A. heterophyllus. 
Whitestem goldenweed (A. macronema, syn. Macronema discoi- 
deum Nutt. (1840), not Aplopappus discoideus DC. (1836) ), locally 
known as yellowbrush, is a white-branched undershrub 4 to 10 inches 
high, which occurs in gravelly rocky browse sites, at altitudes of 
5,000 to 12,000 feet, from Idaho(?) to northern California, Colorado, 
and western Montana, and is often plentiful. It is appreciably 
cropped by sheep in some parts of Nevada but, on the whole, its 
palatability is poor or often nil. 
Singlehead goldenweed (A. sujfruticosus, syn. Macronema suffru- 
ticosum), also frequently called yellowbrush, ranges from Idaho to 
Arizona and western Montana, growing on plains and dry open 
foothills and mountains up to about 9,500 feet. It is a brown- 
branched undershrub 4 to 12 inches high. While seldom eaten 
closely, and often not at all, it is an abundant species and, in spring 
when the vegetation is growing vigorously, and again to some extent 
in the fall, it is sometimes cropped by sheep. Perhaps specifically 
indistinguishable from it is A. linearis, syn. Macronema lineare, an 
undershrub apparently without an acceptable common name, which 
occurs in open, sandy gravelly grass-weed types in Montana and 
Wyoming and which, in the Beaverhead region of southwestern Mon- 
tana, is reliably reported to be fair to fairly good cattle and fairly 
good sheep feed in July, probably due to purely local conditions. 
ASTERS (ASTER SPP.) 
This very large, chiefly North American genus is overwhelmingly 
herbaceous. There are, however, a relatively very few more or less 
woody species—notably of the spiny aster section (genus Linosyris 
of some authors) consisting of about three western shrubs or under- 
shrubs worthless for grazing, and the (approximately 10) species of 
the woody aster section (genus Xylorrhiza of some authors) which 
are found in the region trom Wyoming to California and Arizona 
and vary from scarcely more than herbs, with woody root and crown, 
to true though low shrubs. The woody asters have a zero to very 
low palatability and their material cropping by sheep or other live- 
stock is a sure sign of improper range conditions. — 
Parry aster (A. parryi, syn. Xylorrhiza parry?), the best known 
of the woody asters, appears to be confined to Wyoming, mainly in 
clayey plains at relatively low elevation or in foothills of moderate 
slope. It attains a height of 4 to 9 inches, with a woody root, a 
much-branched, woody crown, and woody stem bases. In past years 
this has been regarded as probably the most disastrous sheep-poison- 
ing plant in Wyoming, the symptoms including weakness, fever, 
labored breathing, bloat, diuresis, and bloody froth, death ensuing 
in from a few hours to three or four days (95, 101, 93, 44, 81, 6, 
2,3). 
Alkali aster (A. glabriusculus, syn. Xylorrhiza glabriuscula) , 
somewhat similar to Parry aster, ranging from Wyoming to north- 
eastern Utah mostly in open clayey alkaline plains but sometimes on 
