Common (Translated Scientific) Name: Whitebark Pine - Subalpine Fir / Rusty Menziesia / Common Beargrass Woodland

Colloquial Name: No Data Available

Hierarchy Level:  Association

Type Concept: This minor small- to large-patch community is found primarily in mid to upper subalpine habitats throughout the Nez Perce and Clearwater national forests, north into Idaho''s panhandle and west into west-central Montana. East of the Continental Divide it extends northward to the Canadian Rockies of southwestern Alberta. Its distribution ranges in elevation from 1495 to 2195 m (4900-7200 feet). The lower elevation occurrences are associated with frost-pocket conditions. It usually occupies neutral to collecting positions from toeslopes to ridge shoulders and including ridgetops; it can be found on well-drained benches in cold-air drainages. Degree of slope is highly variable, but cold aspects (from northeast- through east-facing) are predominant. Parent materials are various, from intrusive volcanics of the Idaho Batholith to extrusive volcanics (andesite and basalt) to various sedimentary and metamorphic species, including quartzite, argillite, siltstone, sandstone and schist. Soils are acidic, well-drained, and soil texture is usually on the finer end of the spectrum (loams and silt loams being common). Exposed rock and soil are generally less than 5%, and the rock content in the profile often exceeds 5%, increasing markedly with depth. The overstory is usually an open canopy (less than 50% cover) dominated by a variable mix of Abies lasiocarpa, Picea engelmannii, Pinus contorta, and the indicator species Pinus albicaulis, which must have at least 5% cover for this type to be recognized as distinctive from ~Abies lasiocarpa - Picea engelmannii / Menziesia ferruginea / Xerophyllum tenax Forest (CEGL005895)$$ or the Pinus contorta-dominated version of this community. The undergrowth may be quite dense with a layer of short Menziesia ferruginea overtopping tussocks of Xerophyllum tenax. Vaccinium membranaceum is highly constant and though subordinate in height (and usually in cover) to Menziesia is still regarded a dominant short shrub. The only dwarf-shrub consistently present, Vaccinium scoparium, occurs as scattered patches; if present with greater than 15% cover, then another association is indicated. The combined cover of these four species often constitutes a continuous undulating layer. Spiraea betulifolia and Lonicera utahensis are consistently scattered in the short-shrub layer. There are no graminoids regularly present. Other than the abundance of the diagnostic Xerophyllum tenax, the forb layer has low cover and is comparatively depauperate with only Arnica latifolia, Anemone piperi, Goodyera oblongifolia, Orthilia secunda, and Viola orbiculata having a consistent presence. On moister sites and where the shrub layer is not overwhelming, Valeriana sitchensis and/or Thalictrum occidentale are consistently present with more than 5% cover.

Diagnostic Characteristics: No Data Available

Rationale for Nominal Species or Physiognomic Features: No Data Available

Classification Comments: Many to most of the stands within this association are merely seral representatives of ~Abies lasiocarpa - Picea engelmannii / Menziesia ferruginea / Xerophyllum tenax Forest (CEGL005895)$$; the association under consideration is recognized, at least in the Glacier-Waterton International Peace Park vegetation keys, as having at least 5% canopy cover of Pinus albicaulis. Recognition of a type based on a very minimal cover of a seral tree species (Pinus albicaulis) of broad distribution should provoke questions; the intent of this broadly inclusive type was to capture stands (specifically their locations, particularly in mapping efforts) wherein this highly threatened species occurs or will have once occurred.

Similar NVC Types: No Data Available

note: No Data Available