Common (Translated Scientific) Name: Douglas-fir / Rusty Menziesia / Bride''s Bonnet Forest

Colloquial Name: No Data Available

Hierarchy Level:  Association

Type Concept: This seral, large-patch to matrix type occupies relatively cold and moist environments across a number of climax tree series and associated geographic regions of the northern Rockies. Thus this cold, mesic type is found throughout the northern Rocky Mountains and may extend as far west as the Cascade Crest on environments characterized as montane to lower and even mid subalpine. The association''s possible elevation range is from 915 to 1800 m (4000-5700 feet), and regardless of the climax series in which it is found, it consistently occurs on cool northwest- through east-facing slopes with moderate to extreme degrees of slope. It has been recorded as low as 910 m (3000 feet) on benches and swales where cold air ponds. The range of parent materials is, with the exception of highly unusual substrates like serpentine, literally as great as possible types occurring in the northern Rocky Mountains and northernmost middle Rocky Mountains and may include some ultramafics east of the Cascade Crest. It is difficult to simply characterize the soils as well, but they are uniformly moderately well-drained to well-drained and have a highly variable coarse-fragment content, but are mostly moderately gravelly throughout. Soil reactions vary from acidic to very acidic. Ground surfaces have virtually no exposed rock or bare soil and duff accumulations vary from moderate to deep. The overstory is dominated by Pseudotsuga menziesii, but its cover is often less than 30%, and canopy cover of the upper stratum often does not much exceed 60%. A whole host of tree species are capable of playing a subordinate role; on warmer sites these include Thuja plicata, Tsuga heterophylla, Abies grandis, and on colder or higher elevation sites are found Abies lasiocarpa, Tsuga mertensiana, and Picea engelmannii. However, the most frequent canopy codominants or associates are the seral species Larix occidentalis, Pinus contorta, and in a restricted portion of the type''s range, Pinus monticola. Menziesia ferruginea conspicuously dominates the tall-shrub layer. Alnus viridis ssp. sinuata and Taxus brevifolia (predominantly in Idaho and western Montana) are the only other tall shrubs consistently present. The short-shrub layer exhibits greater diversity than the other shrub components with Vaccinium membranaceum, Paxistima myrsinites, Rosa gymnocarpa, Rubus parviflorus, and Spiraea betulifolia being consistently present, along with Linnaea borealis, Chimaphila umbellata, and Vaccinium scoparium in the dwarf-shrub layer. Bromus vulgaris (or Bromus ciliatus) are the only graminoids of note. The diagnostic forbs Clintonia uniflora and Tiarella trifoliata have high constancy (both approaching 100%) and/or cover, however, a number of other forbs also exhibit high constancy across this type''s range, including Arnica latifolia, (Arnica cordifolia at lower elevations), Coptis occidentalis (peculiar to central and northern Idaho), Cornus canadensis, Galium triflorum, Goodyera oblongifolia, Maianthemum stellatum, Osmorhiza berteroi, Orthilia secunda, Thalictrum occidentale, Trillium ovatum, Viola orbiculata, and Xerophyllum tenax.

Diagnostic Characteristics: No Data Available

Rationale for Nominal Species or Physiognomic Features: No Data Available

Classification Comments: This association defines an extremely broad environmental range due to the relatively recent approach of defining as unique associations those communities that would formerly have been subsumed within a number of different climax or potential vegetation types; in the case of this association it is a successional stage in environments as mild and wet (defining a Pacific maritime climatic influence) as those supporting Thuja plicata or Tsuga heterophylla / Clintonia uniflora associations (and permutations) to those of the lower subalpine zone characterized by Abies lasiocarpa, Abies amabilis, Abies grandis, Tsuga mertensiana, and even Picea engelmannii / Clintonia uniflora forest associations. That this association in fact occurs in the states and USFS sections listed derives from this writer''s interpretation of constancy/cover tables of various authors/publications; where Pseudotsuga is listed as a major seral species, the inference has been made that stands quite likely occur on the landscape where this species strongly dominates the upper canopy (often observed by this author throughout northern Idaho and western Montana). It should also be noted that this type is probably less common in zones where Thuja plicata, Tsuga heterophylla, and Abies amabilis are the climax dominants because, following disturbance in these zones, the climax trees are quick to reclaim the site, i.e., they comprise a significant cover on the earliest forested successional stages (Pseudotsuga menziesii may seldom be a major seral component on these sites and thus the association is rare as well). Note that this association is always seral; there are no habitats supporting Clintonia uniflora or Tiarella trifoliata that do not support more shade-tolerant and competitive species than Pseudotsuga.

Similar NVC Types: No Data Available

note: No Data Available