47 
Colorado Plants Injurious to Livestock 
vSNOW-ON-THE-MOUNTAIN (Euphorbia marginata) 
This bright green, erect annual (fig. 62), 2 to 4 feet high, is 
conspicuous, due to its white-margined upper leaves; hence the name 
“snow-on-the-mountain.” The plant has a milky juice. It grows 
on the plains and lower foothills, and is most conspicuous in August. 
Poisoning by snozvon-the-mountain .—More than one hundred 
species of spurge grow in the United States and many of them are 
indigenous to Colorado. They have a milky juice that is acrid and 
corrodes the skin and mucuous membranes whenever applied. The 
milky juice has been used imperically to remove warts and freckles. 
The snow-on-the-mountain is a very common plant, but is rarely if 
ever eaten by animals. The plant has not been sufficiently investi¬ 
gated to warrant any definite conclusion regarding its poisonous 
character. On some closely cropped ranges, this plant will be found 
as one of a few that has not been molested. Near Lamar, Colorado, 
where many sheep had died, presumably from eating poison weeds, 
this particular plant was found to have been denuded of foliage by 
grasshoppers but without any apparent diminution of their numbers. 
There was no evidence that sheep had eaten the plants. 
Fig. 62.—Snow-on-the-mountain (Euphorbia marginata). The upper leaves have white 
margins. 
