Native Plants as Friends and Foes

Native Plants as Friends and Foes (Second Article) By J. H. Paul, Professor of Natural Science at the University of Utah IT is reasonable to suppose that the semi-arid West has an unusual number and variety of both medicinal and poisonous plants. This may be due to the fact that the prevailing juice or secre- tion of any plant is more concentrated from evaporation in the West than in the moist regions. Plants breathe through their leaves and also transpire moisture from them. The small leaf surface of desert plants is the method nature takes of lessening evaporation. According to the use that may be made of it, a plant may be re- garded as either a medicine or a poisonous species. The following list comprises our best known and most common plants that are known to be poisonous. Western scouts should be able to find at least ten of them for this remarkable plant project. VIII. Find, collect, and present any ten of the following: Name Poison Ivy. Rhus Rydbergii. Poison Hemlock. Cicuta occidentalis. Stinging Nettle. Urtica dioica. Twinberry Honeysuckle. Lonicera involucrata. Baneberry. Actaea arguta-White; Actaea rubra-Red. Larkspurs. Delphinium. Silky Lupine. Lupinus. sVoolly Loco. Astragalus Death Camass. Zygadenus elegans. Poison Sego. Zygadenus paniculatus. Water Parsnip. Western Poisonous Plants Identification Marks Low shrub; large leaves in 3's; red in autumn. Tall: by streams; stems pur- plish: leaves compound, fls. in clusters. Like tall catnip; no blossoms. Canyon shrub; black berries in red bracts. Canyon herb; elegant, large compound leaves; red or white berries in upright clusters. Blue fls. with one spur; deep- ly cut leaves. Blue or white pea fls. ; leaves digitate. Low, silky herb; bluish pea flower; finger-like lvs. Long, grass-like leaves; small whitish lilies. Stout leaves in fountain form; greenish fls.; bulb. Tall; leaves compound; fls., in How Poisonous To touch. Low canyons. Root if eaten. In marshes. To touch. Everywhere. Berries. Canyons. Fruit. Canyons, in shade. To sheep. Hills, mountains. To sheep. Mountains. To sheep. Mountains, plains. To sheep. High mountains. Bulb if eaten. Hills. Roots if eaten.

NATIVE PLANTS AS FRIENDS AND FOES 1035 Name Sium cicutaefolium. Wild Parsnip. Pastinaca sativa. Western Coneflower. Rudbeckia occidentalis. Saw-toothed Sneezeweed. Senecio serra. Throughout our mts. Lobe-leaf Sneezeweeds. Senecio Species. Unarmed Ragweed. Arbrosia artemaesifolia. Armed Ragweed. Amb. psylostachya. Identification Marks white umbels. Like cultivated parsnip. Large ovate leaves: f Is. in black cones; no ray fls. Tall; many fls.. in heads like small sunfls. Leaves with saw- toothed edges. Smaller; leaves rounded, upper lobed or parted. Low herb; leaves much cut, hairy; fls, a spike of small, in- verted helmets. Less hairy, less leafy; stems dark green, contain red dye. How Poisonous In marshes, rivers. Roots, if eaten. To breathe the pollen gives hay fever. Man and beast get hay fever from breathing pol- len of Senecio. Pollen causes hay fever. Perhaps the worst hay fever weed; common in valleys; "bitterweed." Hay fever. The fruits arc burs. Golden-rod, Helenium. and other Compositae. such as the common sunflower, many of the grasses, also elms and other trees that are wind pollinated, roses and other fragrant flowers, have been known to cause or to aggravate hay fever; the heat and dust of towns, trains, and unpaved roads may induce or intensify the malady. The remedy is to get rid of ragweeds, avoid the others, and go into cool places, preferably the mountains, in summer. Campers' and Hikers' Plagues Every long-established campsite now used by hikers, scouts, or outing parties is today infested by from five to ten terrific plant nuisances — some ten kinds of prickly, bristly, irritating torments, which should immediately be gotten rid of. There is no way of avoiding these exasperating prickly weeds except by keeping one's feet within the beaten trail, which is often dusty, worn, rocky, and uneven. Step outside of that dusty streak, and you must meet the torture of grassy needles, burs, prickles, stings, and hay-fever dust, which severally and collectively mar the exhilaration of a tramp among the hills. About certain camps the native covering of herbs and grasses has been well-nigh exterminated. From careless fires, clearings, travel, bedding places of stock, and other forms of destruc- tion, the ground has been cleared and thorns and thistles have come in. Nature, which dislikes bare ground, proceeds to cover the naked earth with whatever she has at hand — mostly with weeds from all nearby places. This hasty covering preserves the soil from being swept away by rain, wind, and melting snow. Cocklebur, Burdock, and Sandbur Three of the worst species, too well known, are burdock, cockle- bur, and sandbur. Little description need be given of them. The two latter are native, but burdock was imported in pioneer days as a

1036 IMPROVEMENT ERA blood-purifier. None of them is of the slightest value today, and all three should be ruthlessly destroyed. Besides being nuisances, these weeds inflict heavy losses on flockmasters, the burs clinging to the wool of sheep and lowering the price of the product. Cows' tails are often completely clotted by them; and, to the annoyance and suffering of these animals, the hair of woolly dogs and even the manes of horses collect the wretched burs in quantity. By catching in the stockings and other clothing, all such pests lower the enjoy- ment of out-door rambles. Stickseed and Brome Grass On a plant with rather tall, branching stems pretty blue forget- me-nots in spring adorn the hillsides near most Rocky Mountain towns. As the plants go to seed, little burs replace the numerous blossoms, and stand ready to catch upon whatever brushes against them. A later-blooming form in the higher mountains grows to three or four feet on stems slightly branched because of the compe- tition there of other forms of vegetation. Then there is a many- stemmed form (Lappula subecumbens) that lies partly on the ground. All these, easily learned at sight and long remembered from the annoyance they cause, are easy to pull up, being shallow-rooted. The writer is accustomed to clear off these weeds each stopping place during a hike. As the weeds are pulled, they are laid in straight piles; the flowers or prickles pointing one way, so that, even if the weeds are not finally burned, they cling together in a mass and are not likely to spread their burs. Small brome grass, usually mis-called June grass here, is a drooping, one-sided grass about a foot high, one kind purplish at first, with long bristles on seeds that ripen in early summer. This dry tinder affords any spark a chance to start a fire. Small brome is in some respects our worst weed; it is extending everywhere, is of only slight use as forage, while it spreads and multiplies forest fires. It has long, spiny stickers, which get into one's stockings. Brome grasses, however, seem especially liable to infestation by ergot — a black, powdery mass of fungus that grows about grass seeds. Small brome, in the mountains, seems most subject to this smut — a fact that may save us from many a forest fire. Horehound, Thistle, and Stinging Nettle Horehound, cousin to the catnip, is one of the most usual signs of over-grazing. It is a grayish, woolly herb of the mint family, with oval, saw-toothed leaves, opposite on rounded stems. Just above each leaf is a cluster of small whitish flowers, which soon become prickly burs — the prongs of the dry calyx. In recent years, the spread of two pests, stinging nettle and tall thistle, is noteworthy,

NATIVE PLANTS AS FRIENDS AND FOES 1037 being due to fires or over-grazing. Extending along trails to many of the mountain tops, these two causes of tribulation greatly mar the pleasure of mountain-climbing. Nettle is tall, straight, about four feet high; leaves lance-shaped, three to five inches long, whitish below, with stems lined or grooved. The plant is covered with short bristly hairs that penetrate and sting the skin, producing blisters. An interesting feature is the explosion of the anther shortly after sunrise The stamens hang in little curls; and the pollen dust, resembling little puffs of smoke, shoots out as the plants are warmed in the morning sun. Thistles need little description. The worst thistle, the Ca- nadian, is rare; it has many very small heads — Yi inch — and many spines. The pasture and the mountain species, with large heads, are everywhere proceeding to cover unoccupied land. They are stout herbs from 3 to 6 feet high, with sessile leaves having prickly teeth and tips, and 2-inch heads of purplish to white flowers. There are also small species, a few with yellow flowers. In high mountain parks, over-grazing or fire is likely to be fol- lowed by the large Frazer's gentians, plants four to five feet high, stout, and resembling fields of small corn. These spring up in moist places only, and are not necessarily indications of denuded land. In high places also, the rosin leaf, or Wyethia, is likely to cover bare land. Wyethias of several species are often mis-called docks, which are plants of a different family. Wyethias are liked by horses and other stock, and so do not represent an entire waste as do the usual plants that follow over-grazing. CONEFLOWER, RAGWEEDS, KNOTWEEDS, DOCKS Western cone-flower, "niggerhead," spreads quickly over bare mountain land. Its black heads of small massed flowers are not accompanied by rays of the sun-flower sort in our common species. It has leaves ovate, pointed, four to eight inches long, mostly smooth and entire, but some roughish and slightly toothed. In moist land from Montana to Arizona, a species with all the leaves cut or di- vided occurs; eastward is another, about three feet high, like our common species, but mostly with yellow ray flowers, and with rough, bristly, and hairy leaves. Its pollen may produce hay fever. Ragweeds often follow over-grazing on hills and plains of mod- erate altitudes. They are rough-hairy plants, their fruiting flowers hidden singly among the leaves; the stamen-bearing flowers in long, slender, pointed clusters at the tips of branches. The stamen cups have the form of tiny helmets or inverted coal scuttles. These, inverted to shed the rain, are filled with pollen dust — a yellow powder in great quantity. The leaves are lobed and cut into ragged

1038 IMPROVEMENT ERA divisions. One kind has unarmed, smooth little nutlets and rather thick leaves; the other kind is armed with prickly burs and has leaves of thinner texture; it is called armed ragweed. Both are notorious as hay-fever weeds. Small erect knotweeds thickly cover bare land. They grow from six to eight inches high, have oblong leaves, and stems covered with papery sheaths at the joints, similar to the knotweed that lies flat and covers garden paths in the valleys. Sour docks are plants that resemble and are related to the culti- vated rhubarb. They have large leaves, jointed stems, covered with papery sheaths, and masses of brown triangular seeds at the top, sometimes called Indian tobacco. Wild Lettuce, Squirrel-Tail, Sand-Bur Prickly lettuce often comes up in great abundance on bare land. It is wild lettuce, the compass plant, which, in growth, contrives finally to turn its leaves to north and south. It has a milky juice and soft spines on the mid-rib. Squirrel-tail grass is likely to be one of the most frequent new tenants of land in the valleys left vacant. Its long, penetrating needles, forming the squirrel-tail clusters of flowers and seeds, are probably known to nearly everyone. Bur grass, or sandbur, is a creeping grass of warm and mostly sandy soils. Its spikelets of one to three grass flowers are inclosed in a spiny bur that forms the involucre. The burs readily drop from the stem, thus making it one of the most troublesome plants we have. Its scientific name, Cenchrus tribuloides, indicates its nature as a special tormenter of bare-footed children. What Can We Do About It? Unless the area is in the mountains, the presence of any of the plants that indicate over-grazing is not proof that the land has been fire-swept or over-grazed; but their abundance in the moun- tains is clear evidence of over-grazing or other abuse of the land. People in the valley below can hardly maintain that they have not abused, or permitted the abuse of, the land that is covered by plants that indicate over-grazing or fire. In the valleys the abandonment of any land that has been cultivated is sure to be followed by a crop of thorns and thistles; yet there may not have been either over-graz- ing or fires. But wherever these plant signs of over-grazing occur in the mountains, the people in the valley below can hardly maintain that their mountain land has not been abused. What can we do with these pests? Simply destroy them. Net- tles can be crushed and laid low by stepping upon them near the base. Thistles must be cut off, preferably below the soil. Brome

NATIVE PLANTS AS FRIENDS AND FOES 1039 grass, squirrel-tail, and sandbur grass may be burned. Ragweeds, stickseeds, horehound, coneflower, may be pulled up by hand. Prickly lettuce should be cut down. If campers would co-operate, each doing his bit, mountain camps and trails would soon be restored to their former natural conditions, freed from prickly and stinging weeds, and covered with the interesting vegetation of the region. IX. Present specimens of any ten of the following: Camper's Plagues and Signs of Over-grazing or Fire Name Sticksced Forget-me- not. Ascending Sticksced. Western Coneflower. Sand bur Grass Small Brome Grass. Squirrel-tail Grass. Bull Thistle. Canadian Thistle. Other Thistles. How to Eradicate Pull up; burn. Pull up; burn. Pull up; burn. Hoe up; burn. Hoe up; burn. Hoe up; burn. Chop off below soil. Cut, bury, burn. Hoe up; mow Name Stinging Nettle. Prickly Lettuce. Sweet Cicely. Horehound. Armed Ragweed. Unarmed Ragweed Cocklebur. Burdock. Mallow. Torch Weed. Erect Knotweed. How to Eradicate Tread down. Cut; hoc. Cut; hoe. Pull up; burn. Pull up; burn. Pull up; burn. Pull up; burn. Chop root; burn. Chop root; burn. Pull up; burn. Pull up; burn. Each of the foregoing weeds, either well known or described herein, is a sign of nature's effort to clothe her nakedness — to re cover over-grazed, or fire-swept, or flood-swept land. Any of these will soon re-cover lands that have been denuded by snowslide, flood, over-grazing, or fire. Fine Species That Cover Bare Land False Hellebore, a tall, straight, heavy-stemmed plant with alternate, parallel-veined leaves in the form of boats or cups that hold water next to the stem, and with a mass of greenish-white flowers at the top, is also a sign of over-grazing, but need not be exterminated. It may grow in close formation, resembling Indian corn, elegant and imposing — just an interesting giant lily. Horse Dock (Wyethia), a low herb with large, shining, deep- green, entire or finely toothed leaves lance-shape in outline, and with stems 12 to 18 inches high bearing large sunflower blossoms two or three inches across — is also a sign of over-grazing. It need not be exterminated, horses like it, and it is handsome. I prefer to call it Rosin Leaf because of its gummy content. It is distinguished from the similar, earlier-flowering Balsam Roots ( Balsamorrhiza ) by the densely white, silky covering of the leaves of the latter. Both are ornamental, deserving a place in gardens.

1040 IMPROVEMENT ERA Tall Iva, the velvet-leaf, (Iva xanthifolia) is a sort of blos- somless sunflower, two to four feet high, with large ovate leaves very smooth above; it has minute greenish curls for flowers, which, filled with pollen, induce hay fever. It sometimes follows over- grazing and is common in the valleys. Daisy Fleabane (Erigeron ramosus) an erect, slender weed one to two feet high, branching at the top like a tree, and with minute, daisy-like, whitish flowers and much silky pappus, follows over- grazing and probably induces hay fever; it is more common in fallow fields. Torch Weed (see the author's Farm Friends and Spring Flow- ers) is a foot high, with thread-like branches and little yellow star flowers. It is of unusual interest and unique in elegance. Moonlight and Silver Stars Moonlight and silver stars, O'er head the summer sky. Branches like phantom bars, Softly the night winds sigh. On the deep river's breast, Ruffled by current swift. Welcome, thou heavenly guest; Ripples by moonbeams kissed. Sweetly the night-bird trills Sharp on the quiv'ring air, With gladsome lightness fills All the creation, fair. Night is the dearest time, Naught her perfection mars; Bright shine, in ev'ry clime. Moonlight and silver stars. Sen Jose, Calif. ALICE MAUDE SCHUTTE