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Show THE SAN JUAN RECORD Wednesday January 1, 1992 - Page 4 ranges of Utah, Welsh says. Halogeton produces oxylates which absorb calcium. When sheep eat it, they suffer calcium deficiencies and die. Thou- sands and thousands of This lata 40s sedan sits amid tumbleweeds as it weathers in the San Juan sunshine Alvin Reiner photo Friend or foe, Utahs immigrant plants tracked Contrary to what the old Sons of the Pioneers song implies, cowboys havent always drifted along with the tumbling tumbleweeds The ubiquitous plant, also know as Russian thistle, arrived from Eurasia in the 1870s and is only one of hundreds of plants, some welcome, some not, that have infiltrated the West during the past 150 years. Indeed, if plants were for- eign agents, Brigham Young University botanist Stanley L Welsh would be Utahs plant-worl- d equivaof lent George Smiley, the intrepid agent counter-intelligenc- e in John le Carres spy novels Welsh has spent a lifetime tracking the origins of immigrant plants in the West. Get him started and he can give fascinating in- telligence briefings on which plants are friendly agents and which are the enemies or vicious weeds that have infiltrated and displaced significant portions of the native flora. Ironically, he says, tumbleweeds are both. The tumbleweed, or iberica, first appeared on the Great Plains in the The 1870s, Welsh says. plant probably immigrated in grain seed from Europe. At first there were just a few, but within several Sal-sol- a they were blown across the plains Within 15 years, tumbleweeds were permanently established throughout the years transplants include alfalfa, sweet clover, white and red clover, asparagus, peaches, apricots, various plums and cherries, and watermelons. An example of a plant is cheat-grasor Bromus tectorum, which covers the foothills of Welsh says. so is the Today plant prevalent it seems it must have always been here. Originally, ranchers despised tumbleweeds because they seemed to have no not-so-welco- s, value and grew everywhere, hogging valuable Some of the rangeland plants reach eight feet in diameter. Now ranchers the Wasatch Mountains with a lush green carpet each spring. Its a sight Utahs early settlers never saw, because cheatgrass didnt arrive on the scene until the 1890s. It is called cheatgrass because it looks like marvelous feed but view them as insurance because cattle will eat tum- bleweeds for winter feed when other plants are not available Welsh and colleagues C. soon dries to a scruffy yellow mass that cattle wont Riley Nelson and Kay H Thorne have written chapter Naturalization Species in Utah--1842-Pre-sen- eat. Understandably, ranchers feel cheated, Welsh a entitled, of Plant explains. He says naturalized plants like cheatgrass are t, in the book, Noxious Range Weeds, published by Westview Press. In it they list 310 species in 47 plant families growing in Utah that have origins in Europe, Eurasia, Asia, South America, Australia and the Eastern United States. Welsh, director of BYUs Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum and former assis- - Looking back, he says some of the friendly West, years observers reported seeing tumbleweeds growing in long rows where of The Great Basin Naturalist, says that hundreds more will immigrate to Utah in the next 100 tant editor plants from the previous year had dropped seeds as often aggressive colonizers of disturbed sites. Between 1847 and 1890, there was in- tensive grazing that destroyed many of the indigenous plants and prepared a seedbed for intruders, he When cheatgrass says. arrived from Eurasia, the ground was ready and the new plant hit like a thun- - 0$ (s Anyone who has hiked or boated Utahs major rivers is well acquainted with ta-mari- x, a European plant that invaded the Escalante River drainage in the 1910s. Fifty years later it had spread throughout the state. Before its arrival, river banks were populated almost 100 percent with willows, cottonwoods, grease-woorabbit brush and coyote bush. Like an invading army, tamarix sent airborne seeds up and down river valleys to start plants that produce a salt toxic to other plants. Today it represents about 80 percent of d, the flora KENNYS - Blandmg along Utahs rivers and some lakes. Welsh says Utahs sheep industry has suffered great losses because of an invader called halogeton, a poisonous plant from Eurasia that first appeared in eastern Nevada in the 1930s By 1950 one-wa- y shipments for domestic crops, on cattle, in ships ballast, on shoes, on birds, in airliners, or by any means Quality Building that 1900 are Australia saltbush, burdock, morning glory, watercress, peppermint, catnip, hollyhock, parsnip, smooth crabgrass, and as- paragus. For current information on road conditions call UDOT toll free the desert Give us a call 678-214- 0 Materials Deal with the people who know the building industry SAN JUAN BUILDING SUPPLY 377 West 300 South Blanding involves movement among countries. Other naturalized plants that migrated to Utah before it had spread throughtout Youre Invited Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner 7 days a week 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. N Hiway 191 derclap. sheep have been killed by this plant. Another poisonous plant, this one from the eastern United States, is jimson weed, or Datura stramonium, that came west around 1900. If the lowing cattle fed on the lowly jimson weed, as Gene Autrey used to sing, they would have died, Welsh says. The plant contains three deadly alkaloids. The name jimson comes from Jamestown where early English settlers desperate for food ate the green plant early one spring and became severely ill. Fortunately it made them nauseated and they regurgitated the meal, saving them from death. Cattle dont regurgitate as easily and suffer death if they eat jimson weed, Welsh explains. The botanist says most Utahns have never seen a native Utah dandelion because it is very small and grows at elevations of about 10,000 feet. The larger species that is so common, Taraxacum officinale, was brought to Utah by Scandinavians before 1900. Welsh says plant migrastreet. tion is not a Europeans have some of our weeds that they feel very put upon to have over there. Seeds travel in luggage, in wool, in cuffs, in seed |