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Cattle as dispersers of hound's-tongue on rangeland in southeastern British Columbia
Author
De Clerk-Floate, R.
Publisher
Society for Range Management
Publication Year
1997-05-01
Body

Hound's-tongue (Cynoglossum officinale L.) is a noxious weed on forested range of western North America (N.A.), which produces barbed nutlets (burrs) that attach to animals. There is anecdotal evidence that cattle are important dispersers of hound's-tongue in N.A., although European studies suggest animal dispersal of hound's-tongue burrs is minimal. The objectives of this research were to examine the role of cattle as hound's-tongue dispersers, and to develop a method of estimating hound's-tongue burr and plant density on rangeland that may be useful to researchers and range managers. To determine the movement of burrs onto cattle, the number of burrs on marked stalks, before and after grazing, were counted. In 1993 and 1994, about 65% of the burrs stalk-1 were picked up by grazing cattle, whereas, only 14% of the burrs stalk-1 were lost in a paddock ungrazed by cattle in 1994. Individual cows were monitored for burr gains and losses during monthly moves between paddocks by photographing their faces, and counting the burrs face-1 from projected slides. Cattle also were photographed every 2 weeks while in-situ on paddocks. Within 2 to 4 weeks, cows acquired and then lost burrs as they moved within and between paddocks. These experiments suggest that cattle are major dispersers of hound's-tongue on rangelands. There was a positive, linear relationship (R2=0.77; p The Journal of Range Management archives are made available by the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact lbry-journals@email.arizona.edu for further information. Migrated from OJS platform August 2020

Language
en
Resource Type
Text
Document Type
Journal Issue/Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
10.2307/4003722
Additional Information
De Clerk-Floate, R. (1997). Cattle as dispersers of hound's-tongue on rangeland in southeastern British Columbia. Journal of Range Management, 50(3), 239-243.
ISSN
0022-409X
OAI Identifier
oai:repository.arizona.edu:10150/644061
Journal Volume
50
Journal Number
3
Journal Pages
239-243
Collection
Rangeland Ecology & Management (REM)
Journal Name
Journal of Range Management
Keywords
Cynoglossum officinale
burrs
British Columbia
seed dispersal
cattle
plant density