Locoweed

Locoweed
Related Category: Plants
or crazyweed [Span. loco=crazy], any of several American species of the genera Astragalus and Oxytropus, north-temperate leguminous plants of the family Leguminosae (pulse family), that, when eaten by horses, cattle, ...

Silky Locoweed
Oxytropis sericea Nutt.
Family: Fabaceae, Pea
Genus: Oxytropis ...

Purple locoweed (Oxytropis lambertii) is found in the southern parts of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. This species can cause locoism, a chronic disease that results after long-term grazing.

Koyukuk Locoweed [English]: Oxytropis arctica var. koyukukensis
Koyunpitragi [English]: Eupatorium cannabinum
Kozan Rhododendron [English]: Rhododendron 'Kozan'
Kozan-no-hikari Rhododendron [English]: Rhododendron 'Kozan-no-hikari' ...

The common name, "Locoweed", is applied not to one plant but to many members of the Astragalus genus, for many of these plants absorb toxic soil substances, especially selenium, which cause grazing animals a variety of serious ailments.

Lore: Some members of the Astragalusgenus are known as "Locoweeds" due to the fact that they accumulate selenium which causes livestock that eat the plant to go loco or run about aimlessly in an excited fashion.

Astragalus curvicarpus var. curvicarpus; Coiled Locoweed
Related Flowers
Silvery Vetch ...

The seeds, however, contained the same toxic alkaloid found in locoweed, which inhibits an enzyme necessary for metabolism in mammals.

No specimen has been collected in Texas. Not much is known about the use of this plant, however, several species in the same genus are poisonous, including Wooly loco, Astragalus mollissimus, and Locoweed, Astragalus nuttallianus.

The toxic indolizidine alkaloid, swainsonine, is found in Astragalus (species with it are called "locoweeds") and Swainsona itself, and it causes a serious, sometimes fatal, disease in cattle (for its synthesis by associated fungi, see Pryor et al.

See also: May, Legume, Grass, Pea, Stock