Common (Translated Scientific) Name: Lodgepole Pine / Bride''s Bonnet Forest

Colloquial Name: No Data Available

Hierarchy Level:  Association

Type Concept: Broadly distributed throughout the northern Rocky Mountains and adjacent terrain, this large-patch to matrix seral lodgepole pine forest association occupies relatively moist (mesic) and warm to cool sites having free air drainage and lacking frost-pocket conditions. It occurs on slopes of all degrees of steepness and aspect orientation, though it is more likely to occur in predominantly collecting positions. At the dry extreme of its distribution it is more strongly associated with protected positions such as concave slopes, moist depressions in gently sloping plateau areas, stringers along perennial stream bottoms, toeslopes and northeastern aspects. In the north it ranges from 760 to 1585 m (450-5200 feet), whereas to the south it ranges from 1060 to 1710 m (3500-5600 feet). A wide variety of parent materials are represented including those as disparate as granite, limestone, and all manner of glacio-fluvial material. It is also routinely found on ash caps, ranging from 3 to 60 cm in depth. The soil textures are predominantly loams and silt loams; soils typically have less than 15% coarse-fragment content and are well-drained. This mesic, wholly seral association is characterized by Pinus contorta dominating the upper canopy. Other tree species do occur in the overstory but with much less cover, including the seral Larix occidentalis and Pinus monticola as well as those from warmer environments: Pinus ponderosa, Pseudotsuga menziesii, Thuja plicata, and Tsuga heterophylla, and those of colder environments: Abies lasiocarpa, Abies grandis, and Picea engelmannii. The shrub layer may be highly diverse with tall shrubs (e.g., Acer glabrum, Taxus brevifolia, Amelanchier alnifolia), short shrubs (Symphoricarpos albus, Paxistima myrsinites, Rubus parviflorus, Spiraea betulifolia), and dwarf-shrubs (e.g., Chimaphila umbellata, Linnaea borealis, Mahonia repens) abundantly represented. The graminoid component is inconspicuous. The cover of the diagnostic forbs Clintonia uniflora and Tiarella trifoliata is greatest when this type occurs in warmer environments, up to 30% canopy cover. In the colder environments cover of these diagnostics and all forbs is generally less. Other forbs of high constancy are Aralia nudicaulis, Adenocaulon bicolor, Coptis occidentalis, Cornus canadensis, Galium triflorum, Goodyera oblongifolia, Maianthemum stellatum, Osmorhiza berteroi, Orthilia secunda, Thalictrum occidentale, Trillium ovatum, Viola glabella (or Viola canadensis), 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 cover values forest vegetation types will be distinguished one from another when the canopy tree species are mostly, or exclusively, seral in nature and have a broad environmental range (broad niche). Pfister et al. (1977) recognized Pinus contorta community types only when no other, more shade-tolerant tree species could be found on site. 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 second approach are areas that have experienced stand-replacing fires (or similar catastrophic disturbance, e.g., clearcutting). Another approach when treating existing vegetation could simply be to recognize the plurality of cover in assigning stands to particular associations. 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. 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 Pinus contorta 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 throughout northern Idaho and western Montana) (S. Cooper pers. comm.). 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. This is 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 (Pinus contorta may seldom be a major seral component on these sites and thus the association is rare as well), and Pinus contorta is favored by stand-replacing fire which is uncommon in these mesic forests. Note that the Aralia nudicaulis Phase of the Abies lasiocarpa - Picea engelmannii / Clintonia uniflora Habitat Type (Pfister et al. 1977, Steele et al. 1981, Cooper et al. 1987) has been combined with the Clintonia uniflora Phase because it could not be established that it consistently defined unique environments. Thus, all of the recently defined, seral tree-dominated associations that had been subsumed in the Abies lasiocarpa - Picea engelmannii / Clintonia uniflora Habitat Type are somewhat more broadly defined.

Similar NVC Types: No Data Available

note: No Data Available