Participant Info

Species

Astragalus drummondii

Family

Fabaceae

CommonName

Drummond’s milkvetch, locoweed

Presence

YES

Status

native

EarliestDate

1914

LatestDate

2019

Ecosystem

basin, foothill, montane

Geobotanical

SSawatch, Garitas, SSanjuans, Culebras, NCristos, LBasin

Counties

Alamosa, Conejos, Costilla, Hinsdale, Mineral, Rio Grande, Saguache

Passes

WildlifePreserves

Coller, Hot Creek, Terrace Reservoir

Other Localities

La Botica

PhotoRecords

YES Rich Haswell: Costilla Co, Trinchera Ranch SW of Fort Garland 10 June 2015

Comments

Locoweed is familiar sight all around the foothills and lower montane of the Watershed. The one Basin collection comes from the San Luis Hills. Poisonous to livestock, it has long been a target of ranchers and farmers. In the late 19th century, a calvary officer stationed near Uracca in Alamosa Co, whose horses were being affected, offered money for destroyed plants; native Americans and Hispanic settlers started growing the plant to collect more money (Harlan 2002 [1976], p. 177). In the USA, locoweed is largely a Rocky Mountain plant that, however, does not range much farther south than the northernmost counties of New Mexico.

Annotation