From a distance, the mounds of golden yellow flowers cloaking roadsides and fenced pastures this month provide fall color for travelers on Texas highways. But don't be fooled by their pretty disposition.
Long despised by ranchers, broom snakeweed (Gutierrezia sarothrae) ranks among the state's 106 most toxic plants. Cattle, sheep and goats can get sick and even die after grazing the perennial shrub. Cattle may also abort, or give birth to stillborn or weak calves, according to Toxic Plants of Texas. Loss of livestock attributed to snakeweed poisoning costs ranchers millions of dollars annually.
On the flip side, desert mule deer occasionally browse the plant. Many small birds and mammals eat its seeds and use the foliage as protective cover.
Drought tolerant, broom snakeweed prefers the sandy, chalky and clay soils of dry ranges and deserts. Its tiny yellow flowers – produced in clusters called corymbs – bloom profusely from August through November. In the winter, snakeweed dies back, leaving brittle stems that make great kindling; hence, its other common names of "matchweed" and "matchbrush." In bygone times, dry snakeweed tied to sticks also served well as brooms.
Native American Ethnobotany lists a multitude of medicinal uses for snakeweed, including as a treatment for indigestion, bee stings, headaches, diarrhea, painful menstruations, colds, fevers and nosebleeds, not to mention snakebites, too.
The snakeweed flower although looks nice is actually a very toxic flower. Ranchers dispise this flower because it can get livestock such as cattle, sheep and goats sick after they eat the flower, but some animals get a benefit from the plant. Birds and mammals eat the seeds from the flower. They grow in dry places mostley
I didn't know this flower was toxic. I think ranchers probably have a hard time keeping there livestock away from the flower so they don't get sick.
1. Corymbs-A usually flat-topped flower cluster in which the individual flower stalks grow upward from various points of the main stem to approximately the same height.
2. Attributed-To relate to a particular cause or source
3. Cloaking-covering or concealing.
