Forest communities of the northern whitefish range, rocky mountains, Montana, U.S.A.

Timberline meadows along a 1000‐km transect in NW North America: species diversity and community patterns

“…ex Damm . The first prong, described in this paper, covers the inland mountain ranges from the Columbia Mountains (Landals & Scotter ) to northern Idaho and NW Montana (Damm ), where vegetation closely related to our Pulsatilla occidentalis community is closely linked to open woodland of Larix lyallii (Stachurska‐Swakoń & Spribille ). The second runs along the Coast/Cascade ranges; as Hämet‐Ahti has pointed out, many of the main meadow elements appear to be lacking on the rain‐ward side of the Coast Ranges as they are here replaced by heath, but rich meadow communities are well known from the Cascades and Olympic Mountains (Brink ; Kuramoto & Bliss ; Douglas ; Franklin & Dyrness ; Douglas & Bliss ; Crawford et al.…”

Micarea subalpina Coppins & Spribille, a new subalpine species from the Rocky Mountains, USA

“…At nearly all of its known sites it was found on plant detritus or bare mineral soil in subalpine snow forests of Abies lasiocarpa and Pinus albicaulis, in which the large liliaceous sclerophyte Xerophyllum tenax completely dominates the herb layer. A recent phytosociological study (Stachurska-Swakoń & Spribille 2002), which included the habitats of M. subalpina, provides an overview of the distributional tendencies of the species within subalpine forest communities. Almost all of the known sites for M. subalpina are in the association Xerophyllo-Pinetum albicaulis, a community (1) 0 0-1(2) 0-1 0 0(1) 0-3 length ( m)* (10-)12-16(-19) (6-)7-9(-10) (10-)12-17 (7-)9-15 (8-)9-12(-13) (6-)7-10 (10-)12-21(-25) width ( m) 3-5 (2-)3-4(-5) 4-4•8 3-4(-4.5) 3•7-4•3(-4.7) 2.5-3.5 of relatively dry, well drained sites on south to west facing slopes and ridges.…”

“…However, there are no observations to suggest that this has significantly affected the microsites in which M. subalpina occurs. More rarely, the species has also been found in the moister, more strongly chionophilous associations Luzulo-Abietetum bifoliae and Menziesio-Abietetum bifoliae in subalpine cirque basins which interdigitate with the ridges on which Xerophyllo-Pinetum albicaulis is the dominant community (Stachurska-Swakoń & Spribille 2002). Elevations range from 1800 and 2300 m. The geological bedrock is usually calciumpoor argillite and quartzite.…”