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Project Noah Nature School
Grindelia squarrosa
An erect, tall forb, growing 1 to 3 feet tall, with 1 to several branched stems. Grows from a taproot, branching above. Starts growth in early spring, flowers July to August, reproduces from seeds.
Curlycup gumweed favors dry areas, but grows on moist soils that lack other vegetation. It is most common in dry prairies, waste places, roadsides, railroads, depleted rangelands, and abandoned croplands. It often forms almost pure stands. It is found at elevations from 3,000 to 8,000 feet. Curlycup gumweed increases under drought conditions.
American Indians used the gummy secretions of curlycup gumweed to relieve asthma, bronchitis, and colic. Pawnee Indians boiled leaves and flowering tops to treat saddle sores and raw skin. Today, medicinal uses include treatment of bronchial spasm, whooping cough, asthma, and rashes caused by poison ivy. Curlycup gumweed extract is valuable as a stimulant, sedative, astringent, purgative, emetic, diuretic, antiseptic, and disinfectant.
Cynthia - I'll take a look when I have a chance. You're right, Utah does have a wide variety of climates. Makes it both fun and complicated for IDing sometimes.
Good point about the title "weed", shebebusynow. I had referred to it as a noxious weed because I was told it was a noxious, invasive weed. I see, upon reading more carefully, that it is not invasive, but rather native to North America and only deemed a "weed" because it is unpalatable to grazing animals. I agree that "weed" is an unfair title for a native, non-invasive plant, so I retract my previous (misinformed) statement.
Krystal - I have quite a few plants from Utah listed - by all means check my ID's - I have been thumbing through books and the books give different names for what appears to be the same plant.......always like to have another opinion. have only been in Utah for 2 years and it is a big state with a wide variation of climates
The epithet "weed" kind of gets me. Gumweed doesn't thrive in western Oregon, though it's found here and there. Too wet I suppose. It clearly has many medicinal uses. Just because domestic grazing animals don't like it, does that make it a noxious weed? That said, I do pull tansy ragwort, but then it's not native here.
Spotted on Sep 22, 2011
Submitted on Sep 24, 2011
