Use: Black greasewood is used as browse by cattle and sheep. These animals eat 

 the young shoots and leaves in winter and spring (Kearney and Peebles 1960) . Accordin 

 to Kingsbury (1964), "greasewood is considered useful forage by most ranchers, and 

 many large areas of range would be worthless for raising animals if it were absent." 



Black greasewood was given a browse rating of fair to poor for sheep and goats; 

 poor for deer; fair to useless for cattle; and useless for horses by Sampson and 

 Jespersen 1963) . 



Unfortunately, black greasewood contains soluble oxalates, which may cause poison 

 ing and death if hungry animals consume a large amount of greasewood in a short time. 

 This can be prevented by providing other forage in the diet or at least by spreading 

 out the consiimption of greasev\'ood over a period of several hours or more (Kingsbury 

 1964). In its distribution range, it shows marked ability to naturally establish on 

 disturbed areas, such as roadsides. 



36 



