1 Ag84Ah No.161 1960 CODy 2 ift JStHl UMS Baol|ilt(« tt'ti) NATIONAL LIBRARY = ^ 5= \ X}, xi^ J O' i:o :/ . -fr i >Ç?o -«r •B.» -r)£0-TI -^ «a» '<r>a>:. ,':■ ■-^r-O ^ oo ■ ^^S3 -C- '~T % 33 i "1--^ NOTES ON WESTERN RANGE FORBS: Equisetaceae through Fumariaceae By William A. Dayton Formerly Chief, Division of Dendrology and Range Forage Investigations, Forest Service Forest Service U. S. Department of Agriculture Washington, D. C. CONTENTS Page Introduction ■'■ Horsetail family (Equisetaceae) 2 Clubmoss family (Lycopodiaceae) 5 Polypody family (Polypodiaceae) "^ Lily family (Liliaceae) 12 Iris family (Iridaceae) 5^ Orchid family (Orchidaceae) 61 Nettle family (Urticaceae) 62 Buckwheat family (Polygonaceae) 64 Goosefoot family ( Chenopodiaceae ) 85 Amaranth family (Amaranthaceae) 98 Four-o'clock family (Nyctaginaceae, syn. Allioniaceae) .- 105 Portulaca family ( Portulacaceae) 116 Pink family (Caryophyllaceae) 123 Buttercup family (Ranunculáceas) 143 Barberry family (Berberidaceae) 206 Poppy family (Papaveráceas) 207 Fumitory family (Fumariaceae) 216 Literature cited 224 Index 235 Issued February 1960 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington 25, D. C. - Price $1.75 II r> ir4i NOTES ON WESTERN RANGE FORBS: EQUISETAGEAE THROUGH FUMARIAGEAE By WILLIAM A. DAYTON Formerly Chief, Division of Dendrology and Range Forage Investigations, Forest Service'^ INTRODUCTION Annotated range plant collecting by the Forest Service began in 1907. These earliest collections, however, were deposited in the United States National Herbarium. In 1910 the Forest Service Herbarium in Washington, D.C., w^as started. This assemblage of annotated vv^estern range plant specimens is, almost without ques- tion, the largest in the country. It represents the work of well over a thousand employees and is of considerable importance taxonom- ically, but primarily it is a mine of information on the distribution, ecology, economic values, and life history of perhaps 10,000 or so range plants inhabiting the 11 Far Western States. The serial num- bering of these plants, now reaching about 125,000 specimens, started August 4, 1911, there being no record of those submitted prior to that date. Economic notes were prepared, chiefly by the writer, for about 3,000 species, mostly on cards. In addition, during reconnaissance for mapping vegetation of certain national forests of special graz- ing importance, some members of the crews also annotated range plants on cards and prepared palatability tables. These manu- script notes and data on collection forms of Forest Service Herba- rium plant specimens, as well as personal observations and re- search, furnish the basis for this handbook. Range vegetation is customarily divided into four categories: grasses, grasslike plants (primarily sedges and rushes), forbs (weeds) ,2 and shrubs (woody plants). Among these, forbs are by iMr. Dayton retired in December 1955 and served from then until his death on October 20, 1958, as a Collaborator with the Forest Service. ^Unfortunately, in dealing with this group of plants we enter the field of semantics. The western stockman's term "weed" covers nongrasslike herbs whether palatable or nonpalatable, injurious or harmless, desirable or unde- sirable. And, from an etymological standpoint, "forb" is objectionable. The Greek from which it is anglicized means food—especially forage or fodder, and applies primarily to grasses; moreover, its widened usage to cover plants which do not produce forage and may even be harmful, is naturally quite arbitrary. Despite all this, the term is now widely sanctioned by usage. 1 2 AGRICULTURE HANDBOOK 161, U.S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE far the most numerous. Unlike the other three groups, they seldom dominate other vegetation, but rather are found as admixtures m grasslands or in the understories of forest and brush types. Exceptions, of course, are found in temporary associations, such as the first and second "weed stages," as aftermath of destructive grazing and erosion, described by Sampson (l??)/' Of all plant families, grasses admittedly are the most important for range forage, and their poisonous or otherwise undesirable species are relatively few. Forbs (range weeds), on the other hand, vary enormously in palatability, and they embrace a large majority of our poisonous plants. However, because of their great number, diversity, and ubiquity, they are of great importance to all kinds of livestock and herbivorous wildlife but perhaps espe- cially so to sheep. The genera and species annotated for the various families included here were selected on the basis of importance (for grazing, as poisonous plants, etc.) ; interest (peculiarities, miscellaneous values) ; and commonness and abundance. Because only about one-fourth of the range forbs in the 11 Far Western States are covered here, it is hoped that someone will carry this work to completion. Although this handbook is concerned primarily with vascular plants, the nonvascular algae, fungi, lichens, mosses, and liver- worts are perhaps worthy of mention. Certain algae, such as spe- cies of the genera ISostoc and Anabaena, often cause bad odors and taste in water and are frequently, but apparently incorrectly (151, p. 186), accused of poisoning livestock. Some parasitic fungi, .«uch as rusts and smuts, may be injurious to livestock, as is moldy hay. Squirrels and other wildlife are fond of mushrooms and other edible fungi, and cattle and other livestock sometimes crop mush- rooms (Agnricus spp., et al.). The fondness of swine for truffles is well known. The writer is not aware of any case where domestic livestock have voluntarily eaten amanitas and other toxic fungi. In the tundras of the Arctic, reindeermoss [Cladonia rangiferina (L.) Web.] and related species are noted as highly important for- age for reindeer, caribou, muskox, and other native herbivores (199), and in Scandinavia these small shrublike lichens are har- vested for cattle (122, 150). Bearded tree lichens, such as species of Vsnea and Alectoria, when abundant and dry, may be serious forest fire hazards. One of the very few parmelias growing on bare soil, in the Rocky Mountains east to Nebraska and North Dakota, is Parmelia molliiiscula Ach. This gray-green lichen blows into drifts and, on winter range where better feed is unavailable or scarce, it may be eaten by livestock, especially sheep and cattle ; it causes paralysis of the hind legs (15). HORSETAIL FAMILY (EQUISETACEAE) This is a monotypic family, now represented solely by the genus Eguisetum, although in the Carboniferous epoch the family was richly developed, vast forests of tree calamites entering into the ^Italic numbers in parentheses refer to Literature Cited, p. 224. NOTES ON WESTERN RANGE FORBS 3 composition of our coalbeds of today. The generic name Equise- tum, while perhaps not classical Latin, is unquestionably ancient; it derives from Latin equus (horse) + seta (bristle, or strong, coarse hair, horsehair being seta equina). The famous pre-Linnean botanist Tournefort, in his Institutiones Rei Herbariae, says that the name derives "a foliorum forma" (i. e., the form of the leaves) ; presumably the numerous fine branches are referred to. Horsetail (Equisetum) This genus, often also called scouring-rush, consists of about 25 species, mostly occupying wet or moist sites, widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere; a few species, however, are more localized. Horsetails are somewhat rushlike plants, perennial from dark-colored, extensively creeping and branching rootstocks (rhizomes). The aerial stems, mostly erect, may be annual or perennial; they are cylindrical, fluted and silicious, with solid joints (nodes) and mostly hollow internodes, often with whorled branches at the nodes. The small leaves are united lengthwise into sheathlike structures ("sheaths") at the stem joints, or nodes, their tips ("teeth") fused together or free. The minute fruiting spores are provided with four spiral ribbonlike "elaters" which assist in their propulsion when ripe, and are produced in small, stalked, shieldlike sporangia borne in conelike fruiting spikes at the tips of the fertile stems. Horsetail species are largely distinguished by such characters as size and robustness of stems, likeness or unlikeness of sterile and fertile stems, number of angles or grooves in stems, color and persistence of aerial stems, relative size of stem cavities, and num- ber of leaves at a node. Horsetails, as a rule, are not highly re- garded as range forage but frequently may be an important constit- uent in wild hay. When fed in large quantities, however, a number of the species are known to cause scours and sometimes paralysis and death. Horses are the class of stock most usually affected. Field horsetail (Equisetum arvense L. ), as the scientific name arvense (of fields) indicates, inhabits fields, old meadows, road- sides, railroad embankments and the like, and ranges from Green- land and Newfoundland to Alaska and south to California, New Mexico, northeastern Kansas, Kentucky, and North Carolina ; also Europe and Asia. The plant is highly variable; its aerial stems are annual, the sterile and fertile stems differing so markedly as to have the appearance of belonging to two different plants. The short-lived fertile stems appear early in the spring before the sterile stems; they are pale brown or flesh color, usually un- branched, seldom more than about 10 inches high, bearing at the tip a single narrow fruiting cone; the sheaths are 8 to 12 toothed. The bright green, slender sterile stems are longitudinally 6 to 14 furrowed, from 4 inches to 2 feet (rarely 3 feet) high ; the loose whitish sheaths are chaffy and alaout 12 toothed ; the nu- m.erous branches are sharply 4 (occasionally 3) angled, with 4-toothed sheaths. As the fertile stems wither and disappear soon after the spores are shed, the sterile stage is the aspect usually 4 AGRICULTURE HANDBOOK 161, U.S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE seen in the field. The plant is often common in sandy soils, par- ticularly where there is a good supply of moisture at least during most of the growing season. It is seldom eaten on the range ex- cept accidentally as when mixed with hay.