Courtesy PR Extension Office
Curlycup gumweed, also known as rosinweed, has been plentiful in late summer, according to Powder River Extension Agent Mary Rumph. It is more prevalent most likely due to the drier conditions we experienced this summer.
The native, warm season plant is described as an annual, biennial, or perennial and is an erect, tall forb, growing 1 to 3 feet tall, with 1 to several branched stems. It grows from a taproot, branching above. It starts growth in early spring, but really isn’t usually noticed until it flowers in August. It reproduces from seeds.
The flowers are numerous and yellow. There are bracts at the base of the flower which are shiny, sticky, and curved downward. The leaves are gummy.
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.
Curlycup gumweed is unpalatable to cattle, sheep, and horses, though sheep will occasionally crop flower heads in the absence of other forage. Tannins, volatile oils, resins, bitter alkaloids, and glucosides give it an unpleasant taste. If curlycup gumweed is consumed, it may lead to poisoning due to the selenium the plant can accumulate. It is resistant to grazing and drought.
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.
Due to the thick gummy coating over the entire plant herbicide control is very difficult. Herbicides should be applied with surfactants to help spread the spray droplets across the leaves, and also help the herbicide penetrate through the cuticle (outer covering of leaf surface). Using these surfactants with Escort XP, Opensight, or Milestone is effective. Cultivation tends to stimulate growth.
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