Locoweed

lo'ko-wed, a silvery white, silky-leaved plant of the pea family, native to the great plains region from Texas northward. Botanists call it the woolly astragalus. Live stock, including cattle, sheep, and especially horses, acquire a taste for the locoweed and are unwilling to eat anything else. They lose their eyesight and go into a kind of dementia or craziness, during which they cut up all sorts of antics. Emaciation follows, and the animals perish as if from hunger. The state of Colorado has expended a quarter of a million dollars in attempts to eradicate the plant. There are several species. The specific cause of cattle dementia appears to be the presence of minute quantities of the chemical element known as borium. This element appears to accumulate in the system of the grazing animal until the mischief is done.