Common (Translated Scientific) Name: Lodgepole Pine / Bride''s Bonnet - Common Beargrass Woodland

Colloquial Name: No Data Available

Hierarchy Level:  Association

Type Concept: This seral, large-patch to matrix lodgepole pine woodland occupies the relatively cold and dry environments across a number of climax tree series and associated geographic regions. Thus, this mesic type is found throughout the northern Rocky Mountains and may extend as far west as the Cascade Crest on environments characterized as foothills and montane to lower and even mid-subalpine. The association''s possible elevation range is from 915 to 1800 m (3000-5900 feet), and consistently occurs on south- through west-facing exposures. It is found on all landforms, though collecting position on slopes, from the midslopes to footslopes are most common. It occurs regularly on higher elevation flat terrain. The range of parent materials is 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. The soils are uniformly well-drained and have a low coarse-fragment content, except those sites within the lower to mid-subalpine zone (which have a greater coarse-fragment content). The overstory is dominated by Pinus contorta with a number of other tree species possibly present. On warmer sites these include Thuja plicata, Tsuga heterophylla, and 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, Pseudotsuga menziesii, and in a restricted portion of the type''s range Pinus monticola. The tall-shrub component is relatively unimportant. The short-shrub layer exhibits greater cover and diversity than the other shrub components with Vaccinium membranaceum, Paxistima myrsinites, Rosa gymnocarpa, Rubus parviflorus, and Spiraea betulifolia being consistently present. Linnaea borealis and Chimaphila umbellata have high constancy in the dwarf-shrub layer. Bromus vulgaris (or Bromus ciliatus) are the only graminoids of note. The diagnostic forbs Clintonia uniflora, Xerophyllum tenax, and Tiarella trifoliata naturally have high constancy and/or cover; however, a number of other forbs also exhibit high constancy, including Arnica latifolia, Aralia nudicaulis, Adenocaulon bicolor, Coptis occidentalis, Cornus canadensis, Galium triflorum, Goodyera oblongifolia, Maianthemum stellatum, Osmorhiza berteroi, Pedicularis racemosa, Orthilia secunda, Thalictrum occidentale, Trillium ovatum, and Viola orbiculata.

Diagnostic Characteristics: No Data Available

Rationale for Nominal Species or Physiognomic Features: No Data Available

Classification Comments: With the comparatively recent emphasis on developing descriptions of (and keys to) existing vegetation (Grossman et al. 1998), it has yet to be determined at what coverages one vegetation type will be distinguished from another when, in the case of forest vegetation, the canopy tree species are mostly seral in nature and have a broad environmental range (broad niche). With Pinus contorta, which is exclusively seral except with respect to some subspecies on unusual substrates or atypical environments, researchers in Glacier National Park took the position that this very shade-intolerant, stand-replacing fire-adapted species should have several times the cover of the next most abundant canopy species for a Pinus contorta type to be recognized. What is really being indicated by this approach are areas that have experienced stand-replacing fires (or similar catastrophic disturbance, e.g., clearcutting). The stands representing this type are climax in a number of different tree series including Abies lasiocarpa, Abies grandis, Tsuga heterophylla, Tsuga mertensiana, and Thuja plicata.

Similar NVC Types: No Data Available

note: No Data Available