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Locoweed (also crazyweed and loco) is a common name in North America for any plant that produces swainsonine, an alkaloid harmful to livestock.Worldwide, swainsonine is produced by a small number of species, most of them in three genera of the flowering plant family Fabaceae: Oxytropis and Astragalus in North America, [1] and Swainsona in Australia.
Locoweed poisoning is "the most widespread poisonous plant problem in the western United States." [ 3 ] Locoweeds cause locoism , a disease state resulting from chronic neurological damage. Symptoms of locoism include depression , blindness , loss of coordination, emaciation , tremors, paralysis , constipation , deterioration of the coat ...
Oxytropis is a genus of plants in the legume family.It includes over 600 species native to subarctic to temperate regions of North America and Eurasia. [1] It is one of three genera of plants known as locoweeds, and are notorious for being toxic to grazing animals.
The Oxytropis lambertii plant is one of the locoweeds most frequently implicated in livestock poisoning. [8] The toxin is called swainsonine.Research suggests that the plant itself may not be toxic, but becomes toxic when inhabited by endophytic fungi of the genus Embellisia, which produce swainsonine.
Oxytropis splendens, commonly known as showy locoweed, is a flowering perennial in the legume family endemic to the east slope of the Rocky Mountains. [3] Growing in Canada, Alaska, several Great Plains states, and parts of the Mountain West, O. splendens grows well in harsh alpine ecosystems, allowing it to quickly colonize gravel and coal spoils.
Here’s how you can identify it and distinguish the plant from lookalikes.
Fruits, vegetables, seeds and beans are all essential parts of a well-balanced and healthy diet, but if these health gems are not consumed properly, they could be poisonous and detrimental to our ...
Oxytropis campestris, the field locoweed, [3] is a plant native to Northern Europe, the mountains of Central & Southern Europe, the Northwestern United States and all of Canada, sometimes grown as an ornamental plant. It is found in prairies, woods, and meadows, and prefers gravelly and rocky slopes, where it grows most abundantly.