"On-going construction"- Additional treatments of various scrub range types are being added to this chapter. In the interest of getting these to students as quickly as possible numbers of captions are inconsistent. Pardon the confusion caused by this messiness, but presentation of more range types was given higher priority than tidiness. Yes, ths author is a messy housekeeper. (It goes with a big extra-curricular project scabbed on to a regular college teaching load.)
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1. Sand sagebrush (Artemesia filifolia) cover type- This is essentially a form of the sand bluestem- sand sagebrush grassland cover type but a reversal of these two dominants so as to be shrubland more than grassland. There are several intermediate gradations along this continuum that comprise the sand sagebrush savanna type. How much of the shrub dominance is potential natural vegetation and how much is retrogression (range deterioration) due to overgrazing and/or reduction of fire will likely always be contested. The denser populations of the more xeric Artemisia may be climax on the "tighter sites"(those with more clay content) and thus less favorable for sand bluestem, sand dropseed (Sporobolus cryptandrus), and plains lovegrass (Eragrostis intermedia). Potter County, Texas. June. Probably FRES No. 29 (Sagebrush Ecosystem) should include this range type as it has more sagebrush in its potential vegetation than FRES No. 39 (Prairie Ecosystem) which includes K-63 (Sand Sagebrush- Bluestem Prairie). SRM 722 (Sand Sagebrush-Mixed Prairie). Southwestern Tablelands- Semiarid Canadian Breaks Ecoregion, 26d (Griffith et al., 2004).
2. Sand sagebrush (Artemesia filifolia)- This is the major sagebrush species in the mixed prairie grasslands of the Southern Great Plains, both the Rolling Red Prairie (= Rolling Redlands, Redbeds) and High Plains (the Staked Plains or the Llano Estacado). In somewhat greater--though still naturally occurring-- densties or cover sand sagebrush forms a sagebrush mixed prairie savanna or sand sagebrush steppe (SRM 722). On overgrazed ranges and abandoned farmland (ie. "go-back land") sand sagebrush has become a major brush species on par with big sagebrush in the Intermountain West. At densities similar to those of pre-Columbian mixed prairie and sagebrush savanna (the best scientific estimates or "educated guesses") sand sagebrush is a highly desirable component of these ecosystems. It is not only a natural member of the biotic community filling an ecological niche, but it is valuable from such practical standpoints as providing some browse and substantial cover for big game species, furnishing emergency feed sources for livestock during prolongued periods of snow cover, and holding snow (ie. future soil water) that might otherwise blow off the land.
Crowley County, Colorado. July.
3. Leaders of sand sagebrush (Artemesia filifolia)- Crowley County, Colorado. July.
4. Big sagebrush-shrub steppe- As discussed in conjunction with Great Basin sagebrush desert, big sagebrush is a component of range cover types that vary from single-species stands to widely scattered plants in grasslands like those of the Palouse country. This scene in Hayden Valley, Yellowstone National Park is an excellent example of sagebrush vegetation included in an extensive unit mapped by authorities like Kückler as the generic "sagebrush type". The botanically rich understory of the community seen here includes bluebunch wheatgrass, Idaho fescue, blue grama, and buffalograss. Numerous composites "both forbs (e.g. Aster species) and low shrubs" comprise an obvious intermediate layer. July. FRES No. 30 (Sagebrush Ecosystem). K-49 (Sagebrush Steppe). SRM 314 (Big Sagebrush-Bluebunch Wheatgrass). Mixed Bunchgrass-Shrub Series in Great Basin Shrub-Grassland biotic community and with more sagebrush would be Sagebrush Series in Great Basin Desertscrub biotic community of Brown et al. (1998). MIddle Rockies- Yellowstone Plateau Ecoregion, 17j (Chapman et al., 2003).
5. Plains grassland and high desert blend in a broad ecotone with varying amounts of big sagebrush and various herbaceous communities depending on range site and past management practices. Here Wyoming big sagebrush (Artemesia tridentata wyomingensis), western wheatgrass, squirreltail bottlebrush, blue grama, sand dropseed, ect. form an obvious sagebrush shrub steppe. SRM description lacking: a big sagebrush-western wheatgrass type that should be with the SRM 314, 315, 316 series. Mixed Bunchgrass-Shrub Series in Great Basin Shrub-Grassland biotic community of Brown et al. (1998).
6. This general range type was noted variously by John E. Weaver and his colleagues, but less than 200 meters away in the same pasture of a BLM allotment was a western wheatgrass consociation form of mixed prairie on a clay soil under grazing by both cattle and white-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys leucurus).Such local variations in species composition across the range show why “expert opinion” as to role and density/cover of woody plants vary from expert-to-expert regarding almost any range cover type that could be interpreted as shrubland or shrub savanna. Moffat County, Colorado. June.FRES No. 29 (Sagebrush Ecosystem). At a larger scale the Kuchler unit is K-49 (Sagebrush Steppe) but most accurately it is a local example of K-50 (Wheatgrass-Needlegrass-[Sagebrush] Shrubsteppe).No specific SRM description, but similar to SRM 610 (Wheatgrass) or 607 (Wheatgrass-Needlegrass) (ie. Intermountain equivalent of the Great Plains type). Colorado Plateau- Semiarid Benchlands and Canyonlands Ecoregion, 20c (Chapman et al., 2006).
7. Profile of an alluvial soil supporting basin big sagebrush (Artemesia tridentata) illustrating that certain range plants can indicate the potential of soil or other factors for crop production. FRES No. 29 (Sagebrush Ecosystem). Another of several variants of K- 32 (Great Basin Sagebrush). SRM 401 (Basin Big Sagebrush). Sagebrush Series in Great Basin Desertscrub biotic community of Brown et al. (1998). Colorado Plateau- Semiarid Benchlands and Canyonlands Ecoregion, 20c (Chapman et al., 2006).
8. *Mountain big sagebrush shrub steppe- Large-scale view of a shrub steppe dominated by mountain big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata var. vaseyana= A. vaseyana) and with a grass understorey primarily of Idaho fescue and Sandberg bluegrass. The dominant forb was western false helleborne (Veratrum californicum). The cover of Artemisia was almost certainly excessive with a commensurate reduction in cover and productivity of the bunchgrasses so as to constitute range retrogression. This was yet another example of "Deserts on the March" with a mountain big sagebrush shrub steppe (a shrub savanna) having been (or in process of being) converted into a sagebrush shrubland approaching the climax big sagebrush cold desert of the Great Basin farther to the west in an arid zone. The species are the same in both climax range types but the relative proportions are "supposed to be" different, and they have become less so. This mountain big sagebrush-bunchgrass range was not so severely depleted-- not yet at least-- as to be an extreme departure from it's ecological (= successional) potential. Understorey species were still mostly those of climax shrub steppe with relatively little cheatgrass or downy brome (Bromus tectorum). From perspective of physiogonomy there was enough big sagebrush to indicate that it was a shrub steppe. (Ha!)
*Technical note on taxonomy: Knight (1994, ps. 90-99 passim) discussed the sagebrush steppe of Wyoming, complete with inclusion of maps of eight species, in which he noted that "[m]ountain big sagebrush is found in the foothills at higher, cooler elevtions" (Knight, 1994, p. 91). Otherwise the most common A. tridentata taxon of the sagebrush steppe other than in alluvian basins was Wyoming big sagebrush (A. tridentata var. wyomingensis). Beetle (1960, p. 41) mapped the area in which the vegetation shown in these slides grew as A. tridentata subsp. vaseyana (note that Beetle used the taxon of subspecies rather than variety). Beetle (1960) did not recognize the taxon of wyomingensis. Weber and Wittmann (2001) noted presence of a subspecies of wyomingensis along the Colorado-Wyoming state line, but they interpreted the big sagebrush taxon of North Park as Seriphidium vaseyanum. Mutel and Emerick (1992, ps. 94, 103) used this latter species name. The current author designated the vegetation shown here as mountain big sagebrush, but noted that this A. tridentata var. vaseyana attained nothing of the stature or general large size of those individuals found in the foothills or up in the montane zone.
Grand County, Colorado. June (most extreme drought for a one-year period in Colorado weather records). FRES No. 29 (Sagebrush Shrubland Ecosystem). K-49 (Sagebrush Steppe). Variant SRM 612 (Sagebrush-Grass). Southern Rockies-Sagebrush Parks Ecoregion, 21i, (Chapman et al., 2006).
9. Mountain big sagebrush-bunchgrass shrub steppe- General appearance of a shrub steppe having mountain big sagebrush as the dominant shrub (no other woody species were encountered) and the dominant species of this vegetation with an herbaceous layer of golden-aster or goldeneye (Heterotheca villosa= Chrysopsis villosa) and perennial bunchgrasses. The grasse species were also limited with Idaho fescue and Sandberg bluegrass the dominant and associate species, respectively. Western wheatgrass was the third-- a distant third-- major grass. It was nowhere common enough to add a sod-forming grass component. There was cheatgrass but at extremely infrequent occurrence. The golden-aster was in pre-bloom stage and not conspicuous, but many of the small grayish-green clumps are of this composite forb, and not bunchgrasses. This range was in some state of retrogression but not to the point that the species present were other than those of the climax. Proportions of bunchgrasses had probably declined while cover of the composites had increased, but the dominant grasses were still climax species and the cover and density of the Eurasian cheatgrass did not begin to approach the quantities associated with range depletion.
This was appearance of the range following a grazing period in the driest growing season on record in Colorado.
North Park, Jackson County, Colorado. June. FRES No. 29 (Sagebrush Shrubland Ecosystem). K-49 (Sagebrush Steppe). Variant of SRM 612 (Sagebrush-Grass). Mixed Bunchgrass-Shrub Series as an island disjunct from main body of Great Basin Shrub-Grassland biotic community of Brown et al. (1998). Colorado Plateau- Semiarid Benchlands and Canyonlands Ecoregion, 20c (Chapman et al., 2006).
10. Detail of mountain big sagebrush-bunchgrass shrub steppe- Close-up view of A. tridentata var. vaseyana- dominated range with golden-aster as the most common forb and Idaho fescue the dominant grass. In this worst drought on record in Colorado the Idaho fescue had gone dormant after completing it's annual cycle, but the golden-aster was pre-bloom stage. The flowering stalks of Idaho fescue are visible in immediate foreground by the sagebrush.
North Park, Jackson County, Colorado. June. FRES No.29 (Sagebrush Shrubland Ecosystem). K-49 (Sagebrush Steppe). Variant of SRM 612 (Sagebrush-Grass). Mixed Bunchgrass-Shrub Series of Brown et al. (1998). Colorado Plateau- Semiarid Benchlands and Canyonlands Ecoregion, 20c (Chapman et al., 2006).
11. Climax Mesquite Sand Dunes- Coppice shrub from of mesquite. This soil is high in gypsum and various gypsophils are associates. Climax vegetation at edge of salt lakes This is one of the more unique vegetational cover types in the Trans-Pecos section of Basin and Range physiography. This dune land is hummocky with smaller dunes. Hudspeth County, Texas. June. FRES No. 33 (Southwestern Shrubsteppe Ecosystem). Subunit of K-53 (Trans-Pecos Shrub Savanna) too small to be mapped at Kuchler scale. SRM 729 (Mesquite); as the noted in SRM description this vegetation type "varies widely", and this is a "pure" form of scrub mesquite. Mesquite Series in Chihuhuan Desertscrub biotic community of Brown et al. (1998). Chihuhuan Deserts- Chihuhuan Basins and Playas Ecoregion, 24a (Griffith et al., 2004).
12. Alkali Sink Savanna- Alkali basins or sinks typically support shrubs or shrubs with an herbaceous understory dominated by grasses. Sometimes such basins are grasslands such as alkali sacaton flats, an example of which was included with the Grassland slides. On this same range site at the same location fourwing saltbush is co-dominant with alkali sacaton thereby forming an alkali sink grass-shrub savanna as seen here. Pale wolfberry (Lycium pallidum) is the major associate. This is a closed basin, gypseous soil (Dick-Peddie, 1993, p. 153) formed from a large gypsum deposit, the foredune (= dune front) of which is visible in the background. Gypsum is hydrous calcium sulfate, CaSO4 .2H2O, which exist as a colorless, white, gray, red, yellow, or brown transparent, monoclinic mineral (Morris, 1992) but which is rarely found in sand form because it is water-soluble. In the arid Tulorsa Basin there is not enough precipitation and surface runoff to solubilize and carry the gypsum off. It remains as a deposit. This vast gypsum dune field (the largest on Earth) formed when gypsum-bearing rain water and snowmelt ran off the surrounding Sacramento and San Andres Mountain ranges forming a vast lake in this part of the Tulorsa Basin. When the climate changed to a warmer, drier pattern the lake evaporated leaving the gypsum deposit.
The Tularosa Basin, located in southcentral New Mexico, is part of the Mexican Highland section of the Basin and Range physiographic province.
White Sands National Monument, Otero County, New Mexico. June. FRES No. 33 (Southwestern Shrub Steppe Ecosystem), one form or subunit of K-53 (Trans-Pecos Shrub Savanna), variant of SRM 701 (Alkali Sacaton-Tobosagrass). No biotic community series for alkali sacaton flat in Brown et al. (1998, p. 40) but in general it was Chihuhuan (Semidesert) Grassland 143.1 in Warm Temperate Grassland 143.0. Closest biotic community unit for the gypsum dune scrubland was Saltbush Series in Chihunuan Desertscrub climatic zone of Brown et al. (1998, p. 41).
13. Gypsum Barrens or Gypsum Scrub- This is the dune front or foredune of the famed "white sands" of the Tulorsa Basin in southern New Mexico. This is actually "a vast gypsum sand area" (Dick-Peddiie, 1993, p. 128) with gypseous soils around its edges spreading out into an alkali sink. This huge gypsum "pile" occurs just above the alkali sink grassland vegetation dominated by alkali sacaton (included with the Grassland slides) and an alkali sacaton-fourwing saltbush-pale wolfberry savanna seen in the previous slide and at the base of the foredune (the alkali sacaton dominating the foreground of this photograph). Species on the foregune are soaptree yucca (Yucca elata) on the far left, fourwing saltbush in the center and rubber rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus nauseosus) to the right of center. Gypsophiles or gypsophilous plants are those species which live or thrive in a gypsum-rich soil (Morris, 1992). All of the gypsum-dwelling species found here are widely distributed ones which more commonly thrive on non-gypseous soils. This suggests that the ones growing on this gypsum-rich habitat are unique gypsophilous ecotypes of species that are not usually gypsum-adapted plants.
White Sands National Monument, Otero County, New Mexico. June. FRES No. 33 (Southwestern Shrub Steppe Savanna), one form or subunit of K-53 (Trans-Pecos Shrub Savanna) for the alkali sink vegetation and no K-unit for the foredune scrub. SRM 701 for the alkali sacaton-fourwing saltbush savanna but no SRM for the unique gypsum scrub (too many shrubs for SRM 701). Saltbush Series 153.26, Chihuhuan Desertscrub 153.2 of Warm Temperate Desertland 153.0 in Brown et al, (1998. ps. 40-41). Chihuhuan Deserts- Gypsiferous Dunes Ecoregion 24g (Griffith et al. (2006).
14. Gypsum Desert Dune Scrub- This scrub vegetation on the gypsum foredune is a remarkably diverse range community in a small area. It is the point at which gypsum foredune meets the alkali basin or sink of alkali sacaton. The immediate foreground is dominated by alkali sacaton and soaptree yucca, the latter also extending up the lower and mid portions of the foredune. Rubber rabbitbrush and fourwing saltbrush occupy the mid-elevation of foredune while the top of the foredune (center ridgeline) supports skunkbush sumac (Rhus trilobata= R. aromatica). These are probably gypsophilous (adapted or surviving on gypsum-habitats) ecotypes. This vegetation is growing on a foredune on a less xeric and cooler east side. This is an example of the importance of aspect, the position facing a particular direction usually expressed as a compass direction in degrees or cardinal directions of north, south, east or west or breakdowns thereof such as a southeast or northwest aspect (Helms, 1998) or, more simply, the direction the slope of a hill or mountain faces as in a north-facing aspect (Morris, 1992). Influence of aspect is more commonly thought of as being important in the mountains, but this example illustrates that aspect can be just as much an abiotic factor at smaller scale in deserts.
White Sands National Monument, Otero County, New Mexico. July. FRES No. 33 (Southwestern Shrub Steppe Ecosystem), but no K-unit or SRM description fits the gypsum dune shrubland. Saltbush Series 153.26, Chihuhuan Desertscrub 153.2 of Warm Temperate Desertland 153.0 in Brown et al, (1998. ps. 40-41). Chihuhuan Deserts- Gypsiferous Dunes Ecoregion 24g (Griffith et al. (2006).
15. Further details of gypsum dunes scrub- The following set of four slides presented the range vegetation that developed on gypsum dunes in the Tularosa Basin in southcentraal New Mexico.
15a. Deep in the dune scrub- Sweeping look at a shrubland range community in the intrior of a large parabolic gypsum dune including stabilized slip faces. This edaphic/topographic climax vegetation was a more mesic form of desert scrub in the Chihuhuan Desert Region. Dominant range plants were shrubs with the major ones being skunkbush sumac, fourwing saltbush (Atriplex canescens), Torrey mormon-tea (Ephedra torreyi), rubber rabbitbrush, soaptree yucca, crucillo or knifeleaf condalia (Condalia spathulata), and Berlander's wolfberry or pale woldberry (Lycium berlandieri= L. parviflorum).The major herbaceous species were grasses including alkali sacaton (Sporobolus aeroides), the sole dominant of adjoining salt flat grassland, along with blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis), sand dropseed (Sporobolus cryptandrus), and even little bluestem (Andropogon scoparius= Schizachyrium scoparium). The principal forbs were scarlet gaura (Gaura coccinea) and dwarf stickleaf or dwarf blazingstar (Mentzelia pumila= M. multiflora; Nuttallia multiflora= M. pumila var. procera= M. procera; this is a taxonomic complex meaning a nomenclatural mess).
White Sands National Monument, Otero County, New Mexico. Late June; esarly estival aspect. FRES No. 33 (Southwestern Shrub Steppe Ecosystem), but no K-unit or SRM description fits the gypsum dune shrubland. Saltbush Series 153.26, Chihuhuan Desertscrub 153.2 of Warm Temperate Desertland 153.0 in Brown et al, (1998. ps. 40-41). Chihuhuan Deserts- Gypsiferous Dunes Ecoregion 24g (Griffith et al. (2006).
15b. A sample of gypsum dune vegetation- The composition of this local plant community within a gypsum dune shrubland was co-dominaated by skunkbush sumac (dark green plants at top of the dune) and fourwing saltbush (brownish or tan-colored woody plants in fore-and midground which was base of the dune face). There were also some plants of Torrey Mormon-tea, soaptree yucca and, among herbaceous species, scarlet guara, blue grama, and alkali sacaton. The latter species was the sole dominant of an adjoining salt flat form of semidesert grassland.
Some of these species like skunkbush sumac and blue grama were those that are more mesic in their habitat requirements. The gypsum dunes generally supported more mesic range plant species than those of adjacent salt flat grassland. Other range species such as alkali sacaton and fourwing saltbush were "equally at home" on gypsum dunes and irregularly flooded saline flats.
White Sands National Monument, Otero County, New Mexico. Late June; esarly estival aspect. FRES No. 33 (Southwestern Shrub Steppe Ecosystem), but no K-unit or SRM description fits the gypsum dune shrubland. Saltbush Series 153.26, Chihuhuan Desertscrub 153.2 of Warm Temperate Desertland 153.0 in Brown et al, (1998. ps. 40-41). Chihuhuan Deserts- Gypsiferous Dunes Ecoregion 24g (Griffith et al. (2006).
15c. Another sample of gypsum dune vegetation- The steep sides of a gypsum dune in the Tularosa Basin was the edaphic home for a desert shrubland of skunkbush sumac, crucillo or knifeleaf condalia (center to right foreground), Torrey Mormon-tea, soaptree yucca, dwarf stickleaf or dwarf blazingstar, blue grama, sand dropseed, and scarlet guara.
White Sands National Monument, Otero County, New Mexico. Late June; esarly estival aspect. FRES No. 33 (Southwestern Shrub Steppe Ecosystem), but no K-unit or SRM description fits the gypsum dune shrubland. Saltbush Series 153.26, Chihuhuan Desertscrub 153.2 of Warm Temperate Desertland 153.0 in Brown et al, (1998. ps. 40-41). Chihuhuan Deserts- Gypsiferous Dunes Ecoregion 24g (Griffith et al. (2006).
15d. Gypsum dune plant life- Local mixture of range plants growing on side (stabilized slip face) of a parabolic gypsum dune. Conspicuous forbs in center foreground were scarlet gaura at prebloom phenological stage. Major shrubs were Torrey mormon-tea and skunkbush sumac. Major herbaceous species beside scarlet gaura was the dominant grass, blue grama.
This is the largest gypsum dune field on Earth. It is a prominent feature of the Tularosa Basin in southcentral New Mexico.
White Sands National Monument, Otero County, New Mexico. Late June; esarly estival aspect. FRES No. 33 (Southwestern Shrub Steppe Ecosystem), but no K-unit or SRM description fits the gypsum dune shrubland. Saltbush Series 153.26, Chihuhuan Desertscrub 153.2 of Warm Temperate Desertland 153.0 in Brown et al, (1998. ps. 40-41). Chihuhuan Deserts- Gypsiferous Dunes Ecoregion 24g (Griffith et al. (2006).
Nuisance plant- Large specimen of dwarf or desert stickleaf or dwarf blazingstar (Mentzelia pumila= M. multiflora= Nuttallia multiflora= M. pumila var. procera= M. procera; historically a taxonomic nightmare) growing on a range in the Chihuhuan Dessert. This native species (by whatever specific epithet, variety, taxon) is a widely distributed biennial (or, sometimes, short-lived perennial) forb of the Loasaceae (loasa family). It is well-adapted to a number of range habitats including gypsum dunes. The species range could not help but be confused due to the various names and synonyms applied (and misapplied) over years of plant collecting and cateloging. Welsh et al. (1993, p. 466) described this situation given high plasticity of morphological features within a given species.
The common name of blazingstar refers to the showy and strikingly distinctive flowers while the name of stickleaf is an apt application given that leaves of the Mentzelia genus cling stubbornly and tenaciously to just about anything and everything. This makes Mentzelia species g it particularily troublesome in dermal coverings like wool and fur. Leaves of the Mentzelia species are a major contaminant of grease fleeces so it is more that just a mere nuisance to woolgrowers.
Such is life on the range. Just one more trouble for sheep herders and cowboys.
Hildago County,New Mexico. Late June; peak bloom phenological stage
.
Crown and fruit of a nuisance plant- Flowering crown (first slide) and fruit (lower or second slide) of dwarf or desert blazingstar or dwarf stickleaf. The fruit of Mentzelia species has been interpreted as a capsule (Welsh et al. 1993, p. 466).
Hildago County,New Mexico. Late June.
Blooms of a nuisance- Flowers of desert or dwarf stickleaf or desert blazingstar. According to Allred and ivey (2012, ps.) there are 24 Mentzelia species in New Mexico. M. pumila (or M. multiflora= M. procera or whatever it is) is one of the more widely distributed of these species, and also one with smaller, less showy flowers.
Hildago County,New Mexico. Late June.
15. Dwarf Rio Grande cottonwood on Gypsum Scrub Barrens- This part of the foredune is populated by Rio Grande cottonwood (Populus deltoides subsp. wislizenii). This is a subspecies of the eastern cottonwood which is so common on the eastern prairies (eg. the State Tree of Kansas). Such depauperate cottonwood trees are of limited browse value but they were shown to impress upon the student the importance of speciation and ecotypic variation as an expression of natural selection. White Sands National Monument, Otero County, New Mexico. June. FRES No. 33 (Trans-Pecos Shrub Steppe Ecosystem), but no K-unit or SRM designation for this unique desert dune scrubland vegetation.
16. Beauty in the grotesque and the gypsum- Shoot of a mature Rio Grande cottonwood on the gypsum dunes of the enchanting Tularosa Basin of central New Mexico. An individual of the unique gypsum dunes ecotype of one the major Populus species in North America. The twisted, dwarf trunk of this "runt" cottonwood provided a good example of ecotypic variation and natural selection to a unique and very harsh habitat. Live on little tree: you teach a good lesson.
White Sands National Monument, Otero County, New Mexico. June.
17. Gypsum Desert Scrub- This is the interior of the immense gypsum dune barrens in the Tulorsa Basin of southern New Mexico. This is inside a barchan dune in the interior of the extensive gypsum dunefield. The large cespitose grass in the foreground is gyp (for gypsum) dropseed (Sporobolus nealleyi). The shrub immediately behind it on the near crest of the barchan dune is rubber rabbitbrush and the dark green shrubs in the background (the choppy dunes of the foredune crest) are skunkbush sumac. Gyp dropseed is another example of speciation as an adaptation to unique abiotic environments
s Consrvation Service, 2017).
146. Shrubland within grassland- A consociation of pickleweed or iodine bush (Allenrolfea occidentalis), a member of the saltbush family (Chenopodiaceae), growing on a gypsum playa within a "sea" of an alkali sacaton variant--an alkali sacaton flat--of semidesert grassland in the Tularosa Basin in southcentral New Mexico.
White Sands National Monument, Otero County, New Mexico. Late June, early estival aspect (prior to onset of summer rains). FRES No. 40 (Desert Grasslands Ecosystem). Smaller units of range vegetation such as this were not mapped by Kuchler (1964, in Garrison et al., 1977). Variant of SRM 701 (Alkali Sacaton-Tobosagrass). Sacaton Series under Chihuahuan (Semidesert) Grassland 143.1 of Warm Temperate Grassland 143 if and when one is listed under a revision or expanded edition of Brown et al. (1998); an error that a Sacaton Series was not so listed. Chihuuhuan Deserts- Chihuahuan Basins and Playas Ecoregion 24a and Gypsiferous Dunes Ecoregion 24g (Griffith et al, 2006). Gyp Outcrop range site on a playa (Natural Resources Consrvation Service, 2017).
Organization and location note: arguably the pickleweed or iodine bush range vegetation on the gypsum playa was a shrubland rather than a grassland range cover type, but this unit of potential natural vegetation was presented here as a subunit of a savanna form of alkali sacaton-dominated semidesert grassland.
147. Salty, gypsiferous pals- Plant of iodine bush or pickleweed (left) and fourwing saltbush (right) at outer edge (margin) of a gypsiferous playa at edge of gypsum dunes in the Tularosa Basin in southcentral New Mexico. These range plants were part of the edaphic/topographic climax range vegetation presented in the immediately preceding two-slide/caption set.
White Sands National Monument Otero County, New Mexico. Late June, early estival phenological stages. FRES No. 40 (Desert Grasslands Ecosystem). Smaller units of range vegetation such as this were not mapped by Kuchler (1964, in Garrison et al., 1977). Variant of SRM 701 (Alkali Sacaton-Tobosagrass). Sacaton Series under Chihuahuan (Semidesert) Grassland 143.1 of Warm Temperate Grassland 143 if and when one is listed under a revision or expanded edition of Brown et al. (1998); an error that a Sacaton Series was not so listed. Chihuuhuan Deserts- Chihuahuan Basins and Playas Ecoregion 24a and Gypsiferous Dunes Ecoregion 24g (Griffith et al, 2006). Gyp Outcrop range site on a playa (Natural Resources Consrvation Service, 2017).
148. Pickled with gypsum and iodine- Leader (first slide) and group of young leaders (second slide) of pickleweed or iodine bush (Allenrolfea occidentalis) growing on a high-content gypsum playa in an alkali sacaton form of semidesert grassland in the Tularosa Basin of southcentral New Mexico.
Good sources (though with limited coverage) for iodine bush included Vines (1960, ps. 235-236), Welsh et al. (1993, p. 130), Allred and Ivey (2012, ps. 266,268), and Carter (2012, p. 344).
White Sands National Monument Otero County, New Mexico. Late June, early warm-season phenological stages
Comparison of this immediate habitat with the alkali sink savanna (and the alkali sink grassland in the Grassland slides) illustrates vividly the concept of ecological niche and Gauses Competitive Exclusion Principle that no two species can occupy the same ecological niche. Sporobolus airoides dominates the alkali sink immediated adjacent to the gypsum dune fields while S. giganteus and S. wrightii form sacaton swales or flats in this same area but on non-gypseous, less-saline soils (cf. Grassland slides for these grassland range types). Mesa dropseed (S. flexuosus) is an associate species on climax black grama semidesert grasslands and a dominant increaser on deteriorated black grama ranges that are in immediate or close proximity to all these range sites/plant communities. Also refer to the true prairie and tallgrass prairie range types (Grassland slides) for dominance by prairie dropseed (S. heterolepis) and tall dropseed (S. asper). The Sporobolus species may not rival the speciation of Darwin's finches but these diverse bunchgrasses illustrate the concept of "fitness" (natural selection for those taxa whose genes are passed to the most progeny).
18. Winterfat (Eurotia lanata) scrub- A consociation of this valuable browse species is another major form or section of Great Basin Desert. It is excellent winter range particularly for domestic sheep (Ovis aries), mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), and pronghorn (Antilocapra americana). Single-species stands such as this one provide quality winter range, but frequently have been overbrowsed. Southern Utah. December. No Kuchler unit for this form ofFRES No. 30 (Sagebrush Ecosystem), but it is likely be a variant of K-32 (Great Basin Sagebrush). Winterfat variant of SRM 414 (Salt Desert Shrub). Winterfat Series in Great Basin Desertscrub biotic community of Brown et al. (1998).
19. Greasewood-saltgrass shrubland- Saline sink in North Park of the Southern Rocky Mountains with a shrub overstorey comprised exclusively of black greasewood (Sarcobartus vermiculatus) and an inland saltgrass-dominated understorey accompanied with isolated individuals of threadleaf sedge (Carex filifolia). This depression usually has standing water for a period during spring after which the soil water content remains relatively high on the low permeability soil. This both supplies adequate water for greasewood and dilutes the salt concentration in the soil of this small basin thereby reducing salt stress to plants. As with most members of the Chenopodiaceae, greasewood posses salt-extruding glands that prevent salt toxicity.
These photographs were taken during the single driest growing season to-date in Colorado weather records (2002) and the greasewood, which is not well-adapted to prolongued drought, showed drought stress as did the graminoids.
It was not known whether the cover of greasewood was excessive and was a brush problem due to mismanagement (perhaps an increase in shrub density, cover, etc. with past overgrazing maybe even tracing back to the open range era) or if this was the ecological potential or climax vegetation. Certainly enough has been learned to identify or "map" this as a naturally Sarcobatus vermiculatus-dominated shrubland with a saltgrass understorey. This vegetation was described by Knight (1994, ps. 108-113). Franklin and Dyrness (1973, ps. 227, 245) designated this community the Sarcobatus vermiculatus/ Distichlis stricta association of shrub steppe in the Columbia Basin of eastern Oregon and Washington.
The climate under which this range type developed was semiarid and the composition of the plant community was such that this was semidesert shrub steppe and not a cold desert saltbush-greasewood scrub. An example of that community on the Red Desert of Wyoming-- and not in a drought-- was presented under the Great Basin Desert portion here in the Shrubland section. The range plant community shown here was one range cover type among several of the Rocky Mountain scrub or "soft chaparral".
Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge, Jackson County, Colorado. North Park. June. No appropriate FRES or Kuchler designations because those units were too large for this vegetation, but this was a legitimate range cover type of shrub steppe. This was another example of the incompleteness-- and need for on-going research into-- vegetation mapping and classification. In the author's judgment this was climax or potential natural vegetation. Franklin and Dyrness (1973, ps. 227, 245) clearly designated it (the black greasewood-inland saltgrass association) as natural vegetation. It is definitely the black greasewood shrub steppe and on equivalent ecological standing with the big sagebrush shrub steppe. It has yet to be designated and described. One important function of technical writing is to point out deficiencies or "missing pieces" in the existing literature. That was just done here. Variant of SRM 414 (Salt Desert Shrub). Southern Rockies- Sagebrush Parks Ecoregion, 21i (Chapman et al., 2006).
20. Black greasewood-Sandburg bluegrass range- In a transition zone between the High Lava Plains and Basin and Range Provinces (Franklin and Dyrness, 1973, p. 6) this upper storey consociation of black greasewood and understorey of Sandberg bluegrass (Poa secunda= P. sandbergii) formed a relatively simple plant community that afforded range for both livestock and big game-- inhospitable and unappealing as it might appear to human senses. As cited in the preceding caption, Franklin and Dyrness (1973, ps. 227, 245) designated a black greasewood-inland saltgrass community for central and eastern Oregon. These workers made no reference to a greasewood-Sandberg bluegrass community or variant of the former community, but that was clearly the vegetation presented here. In fact, this photographer observed no saltgrass on the range portrayed here. Rather Sandberg bluegrass held forth as essentially the only graminoid species. There was some scattered cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) but it would rank a weak associate species. (Refer to two slides immediately below.) Neither were Carex species encountered on this range in this typical precipitation year.
Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Harney County, Oregon. June. Estival aspect. FRES No. 30 (Desert Scrub Ecosystem) but no appropriate Kuchler unit for natural plant communities of this scale. Kuchler unit 34 (Saltbush-Greasewood) is "as close it gits" and that does not reflect those plant communities that are greasewood consociations. Furthermore, the description of this unit (Kuchler, 1964, unit 40 therein) included no grasses or grasslike plants. Kindly note again comment on incompleteness of vegetation designations and mapping given in preceding caption. SRM 414 (Salt Desert Shrub). Northern Basin and Range- Dissected High Lava Plateau Ecoregion (Thorson et al., 2003).
21. Species composition of black greasewood-Sandberg bluegrass range plant community- In addition to the dominant shrub and herbaceous species a specimen of cheatgrass was represented in this photograph. Cheatgrass was widely scattered and a search was necessary to find cheatgrass and the dominants within the same "frame". Transition zone between High Lava Plains and Basin and Range provinces (Franklin and Dyrness, 1973, p. 6), but this range vegetation clearly had physiogonomy, structure, composition more that of the Great Basin Desert than of a shrub steppe, the major expression of vegetation in this area.
Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Harney County, Oregon. June. FRES No. 30 (Desert Scrub Ecosystem) but no apt Kuchler unit (K-34 was "closest fit"). SRM 414 (Salt Desert Shrub). Northern Basin and Range- Dissected High Lava Plateau Ecoregion (Thorson et al., 2003).
22. Sandberg bluegrass- Mature (seed-ripe stage) Sandberg bluegrass in understorey of black greasewood-dominated scrub range. Although this range vegetation was at extreme northern edge of the Great Basin (more as an "island" thereof) it was reasonable typical of the Great Basin Desert type. Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Harney County, Oregon. June.
23. Range vegetation of an alkali flat- Savanna of black greasewood, with minor amounts of Greene's rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus greeni) as associate shrub, and galleta (Hilaria jamesii) and local colonies of wire, Baltic, or Arctic rush (Juncus balticus= J. aractic subsp. ater= J. ater). There were numerous plants of a distinctive race or variety of (longspike) plains pricklypear (Opuntia polycantha var. rufspina) that formed a second woody layer in this relatively simple range plant community.
Range vegetation that developed on this mildly alkaline flat had substantial herbaceous cover so that it had to be interpreted as a grass-shrub savanna and not a scrubland. The potential natural vegetation was mapped by Kuchler (1964, 1966) as a small vegetational region of shadscale (Atriplex confertifolia)-saltbush scrub with inlad saltgrass (Distichlis spicatum) as the only grass species as an important component (Kuchler, 1964, p. 40). Range vegetatioh displayed here was similar, and undoubtedly a variant of Kuchler's unit, but with galleta instead of saltgrass and a rabbitbrush instead of shrubs listed by Kuchler (1964, p. 40). This plant community had more grass as a more prominent vegeatational element so that, again, this was not shrubland.
Specification: Technically the San Luis Valley in which this range vegetation developed was desert to semidesert with annual precipitation ranging from about seven to ten inches (a mean of less than eight inches). This arid precipitation zone qualifies the San Luis Valley (one of four four Intermountain Parks of the Southern Rocky Mountains) as a climatic desert. It is a type of basin and range landform with an obvious rain shadow effect (James, 1971). Trimble (2001) described the San Luis Valley as the largest, highest mountain desert in North America.
Aridity not withstanding, there are semidesert grasslands in the San Luis Basin (basin is a more precise term than valley) and pinyon pine (Pinus edulis)-juniper (Juniperus sppp.) woodlands in foothills just above the basin floor. Clearly, desert climate does not "declare" all natural vegetation of this locality to be desert scrub. The greasewood-grass savanna discussed here is an example of this latter fact.
Organization note: semidesert grasslands dominated by Indian ricegrass (Oryzopsis hymenoides), and with black greasewood as an important component of that climax vegetation, was presented in the Grassland chapter, Semidesert Grasslands, in Range Types.
Saguache County, Colorado. Late June (early estival aspect). None of the standard units of range vegetation given in the authoritative references fit this range plant community. Given that grass was abundant (a relative tem) and shrubs far from comprising a shrubland this plant community could not be regarded as degraded grassland nor as desert scrub. It was obviously a form of shrubland which was why it was included in this chapter. These specifics duly noted this range vegetation was assigned the "nearest fit" as followed. FRES No. 30 (Desert Scrub Ecosystem) but no apt Kuchler unit (K-34 was "closest fit"). SRM 414 (Salt Desert Shrub). Cold Temperate Desertland 152, Great Basin Desertscrub 152.1, Greasewood Series at, say, 152.18 in Brown et al. (1998, p. 40) who, strangly enough, did not give a Greaswood Series. Arizona/New Mexico Plateau, Salt Flats Ecoregion, 22c (Chapman et al., 2006).
24. Botanical buddies in the San Luis Basin- Range vegetation of a greasewood-galleta savanna in an Intramountain arid zone.This was an alkali flat of limited species diversity. Greene's rabbitbrush and a few scattered plants of longspine plains pricklypear rounded out the woody species, but there were two sporadic-spaced shrub layers. The associate herbaceous species was wire, Arctic, or Baltic rush. The second photograph showed a representative local affilitation of galleta and black greasewood. This range plant community was clearly a grass-shrub savanna and not a desert or arid scrubland.
The only forb of consequence on this range was some unidentifiable (at prebloom stage) species of Astragalus.
Saguache County, Colorado. Late June (early estival aspect). None of the standard units of range vegetation given in the authoritative references fit this range plant community. Given that grass was abundant (a relative tem) and shrubs far from comprising a shrubland this plant community could not be regarded as degraded grassland nor as desert scrub. It was obviously a form of shrubland which was why it was included in this chapter. These specifics duly noted this range vegetation was assigned the "nearest fit" as followed. FRES No. 30 (Desert Scrub Ecosystem) but no apt Kuchler unit (K-34 was "closest fit"). SRM 414 (Salt Desert Shrub). Cold Temperate Desertland 152, Great Basin Desertscrub 152.1, Greasewood Series at, say, 152.18 in Brown et al. (1998, p. 40) who, strangly enough, did not give a Greaswood Series. Arizona/New Mexico Plateau, Salt Flats Ecoregion, 22c (Chapman et al., 2006).
25. Another greasewood-galleta savanna- A second example of an alkali flat in the desert of the San Luis Valley of slightly diffeerent species composition from the one described immediately above. The fundamental difference was in less cover of galleta and Baltic or Arctic rush and somewhat greater density and cover of longspike pircklypear. This range was perhaps in lower range condition class. Clearly, it had more bare soil. A rangeman would likely suspect overgrazing as a contributing factor, but given cover and density of galleta this range could recover, and probably in fewer growing seassons than one might suspect for arid climate. At time of photographs this range was not stocked by livestock and there was obvious high vigor of galleta and wire rush.
The rhizomatous/stoloniferous growth habit of galleta was shown prominently in the second of these two photographs.
Saguache County, Colorado. Late June (early estival aspect). None of the standard units of range vegetation given in the authoritative references fit this range plant community. Given that grass was abundant (a relative tem) and shrubs far from comprising a shrubland this plant community could not be regarded as degraded grassland nor as desert scrub. It was obviously a form of shrubland which was why it was included in this chapter. These specifics duly noted this range vegetation was assigned the "nearest fit" as followed. FRES No. 30 (Desert Scrub Ecosystem) but no apt Kuchler unit (K-34 was "closest fit"). SRM 414 (Salt Desert Shrub). Cold Temperate Desertland 152, Great Basin Desertscrub 152.1, Greasewood Series at, say, 152.18 in Brown et al. (1998, p. 40) who, strangly enough, did not give a Greaswood Series. Arizona/New Mexico Plateau, Salt Flats Ecoregion, 22c (Chapman et al., 2006).
26. Black greasewood as brush on a old field- An example of excessive cover (density, biomass, and everything else) of greasewood that invaded and occupied former farmland (primarily row crops like Solanum tuberosa, potaoto). Greasewood is without doubt the climax shrub of greasewood-grass savanna and greasewood-saltbush deserts which are the potential natural vegetation over much of this area. The vegetational situation shown here--and in contrast to examples of climax range vegetation presented above--was a disturbance climax comprised almost exclusively of black greasewood that established (to exclusion of almost all other range plants) on the "new land" (denuded soil) created by farming followed by cessation of farming. There were a few plants of sticky rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus viscidiflorus).
Such human action set the successional stage for an invasion of black greasewood of such magnitude (such state of departure from climax) that it constituted a brush problem. Brush is the term for noxious woody species. Brush is to be applied always--and only--to excessive cover of woody plants (ie. woody weeds or woody pests). The proportions (based as to relative cover) of black greasewood presented in previous photographs were not brush. The portions of greasewood on the scrubland and savannah described previously were those (as best rangemen can conclude or determine) of the potential (climax) range vegetation.
The excessive proportion of the range vegetation (loosely applied) occupied by greasewood in this brush patch was, once more, a disclimax. It was a radical departure from the climax vegetation which, in this example, was due to past agronomic crop production and not overgrazing by range animals.
San Luis Valley, Castillo County, Colorado. Late June. Range vegetation: black greasewood brush, disturbnce climax.
27. Greasy patch- Black greasewood invasion on abandoned cropland in San Luis Valley of southern Colorado. This old field (go-back land) was recently used for production of potatos (Solanum tuberosa). Facing problems with irrigation the potato-grower left the farmland to be overtaken by a "nearly prue" population of greasewood that grew so thick there was almost no berbaceous cover beneath except for cheatgrass.
This degraded vegetation was not a natural range plant community, but it certainly was a brush patch of brush, a form of anthropogenic disturbance climax.
This single-species stand of black greasewood was presented to show: 1) range retrogression (due in this instance to farming not grazing), 2) a scrub disclimax, 3) brush invsion due to human action, and 4) several plants of greasewood as a stand.
Costillo County, Colorado. Late June.
28. Leader of male black greasewood- Greasewood is a dioecious species. This was a primary lower limb on a male plant bearing an abundant crop of staminate flowers. Costillo County, Colorado. Late June, immediate stage before anthesis (pre-pollen release).
29. Boys' club- Leader of a male plant of black greasewood with staminate inflorescences and leaves (first slide) and details of staminate flowers (second slide). These flowers were on the same main leader (limb or primary branch) shown in the preceding slide. Costillo County, Colorado. Late June, immediately prior to pollen release.
30. A sticky scrub customer- Sticky rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus viscidiflorus) growing with black greasewood. This specimen was at the edge of the greasewood invasion (on the abandoned potato field) shown above. This and several of the other Chrysothamnus species such as C. nauseous, green rabbitbrush, grow in association with black greasewood. C. viscidiflorus was the most common rabbitbrush on greasewood-dominated scrubland and savanna in this area.
The plant shown here (second slide was part of crown of whole plant in first slide) was a young one that did not yet have dead or dying (senescing) branches.
Costillo County, Colorado. Late June (early spring), pre-bloom stage.
31. Rush of the flat- Wire, Baltic, or Arctic rush (Juncus balticus= J. aractic subsp. ater= J. ater). For being such a cosmopolitan (or nearly so) species there remains great confusion regarding the name of this grasslike plant this specimen of which was growing on a black greasewood savanna in the northwestern part of the San Luis Valley.
Saguache County, Colorado.
32. Hardscramble sex- Sexual shoots and flowers of wire, Baltic, or Arctic rush growing on an alkali flat on which a greasewood savanna had developed. Saguache County, Colorado. Mid-June (late spring), anthesis.
Trnansition between transitions- Between the black greasewood-galleta-Baltic rush savanna that developed on an alkali flat and the black greasewood-Indian ricegrass-muhly savanna there as a third ecotone (and ecotone of two ecotones) that had features of both greasewood savannas. The distinctive feature of the "in-between transition" was the number of colorful range forbs growing on it. Several of these were presented in the following short section.
33. Fragrance on a flat- Fragrant or purple milkvetch (Astragalus agrestis) that found a home on an ecotone (transition among two or more distinct plant communities) between black greasewood-galleta savanna and black greasewood-Indian ricegrass-muhly savanna. Savannas are themselves ecotones (or transition zones that develop on "overlapping" plant communities so the transition between these two savannahs was an ecotone between ecotones. There were two showy Astragalus species growing on this "ecotone between ecotones".
Saguache County, Colorado. Mid-June, full-bloom stage.
34. At least this is the color of milk (sorta)- Drummond's milkvetch (Astragalus drummondii) was one of two Astragalus species growing on an ecotone between a black greasewood-galleta savannah and black greasewood-Indian ricegrass-muhly savannah. Saguache County, Colorado. Mid-June, full-bloom stage.
35. Milky flowers- Inflorescence of Drummond's milkvetch. This was an especially "sensational" flower cluster on a plant growing on a vegetational transition zone between two black greasewood-dominated sanvanna range types. Saguache County, Colorado. Mid-June, full-bloom phenological stage.
Clean bill of health- There are many Astragalus speceies in the Western Range Region. A number of these species are stock-poisoning plants the toxicities of which include locosim, nitrotoxicosis (including glycosides of nitropropionic acid), and selenosis or selenium toxicosis (Burrows and Tyrl, 2003, ps. 510-535). Neither A. agrestis nor A. drummondii appeared in the detailed listing of Astragalus speceies known or suspected of causing these poisoning problems (Burrows and Tyrl, 2003, ps. 515,525, 530).
Instead it appeared that these papilionaceous legumes are--true to the legume reputation--just nutritious range forbs. Hermann (1966, ps. 43-44) noted that the coarse, rank-growing A. drummondii was not particularly palatable to animals though forage value ranged from fair to excellent. In somewhat of a contrast A. agrestis (= A. dasyglottis= A. goniatus) was regarded as a valuable forage species having high palatability (Hermann, 1966, ps. 75-77).
36. An aster (of sorts)- Engelmann's fleabane (Erigeron engelmannii) growing in association with at edge of two (transition zone or ecotone) between two black greasewood savanna range types. Erigeron species are in the aster tribe, Astereae.
Saguache County, Colorado. Mid-June, and guess what, full-bloom stage.
37. Short scout by greasewood- Specimen of dwarf mountain ragwort or Fremont's groundsel (Senecio fremontii) that was blooming gayly at margin where two black greasewood-dominated savanna range types overlapped. Another composite of another tribe, Senecioneae, that was growing in association with Engelmann's fleabane. The specific epithet commenerated the famous Army general and consummant explorer, John Charles Frémont.
Saguache County, Colorado. Mid-June, and--guess what--full-bloom stage.
38. Fremont's floral legacy- Detailed view of some infloresecences on the same Frémont's groundsel as shown immediately above. Saguache County, Colorado. Mid-June, and guess what, full-bloom stage.
39. Another family represented- Crownleaf evening-primrose (Oenothera coronopifolia), evening-primrose family (Onagraceae) happily enjoying sexual reproduction on an ecotone between a black greasewood-Indian ricegrass-muhly savannah and a black greasewood-galleta savannah. On a stoney outcrop of an ecotone of two more extensive ecotones this rather short-growing, perennial, range forb added species diversity to this diverse transition range plant community.
Saguache County, Colorado. Mid-June, full-bloom stage.
Still yet another family represented- The snapdragon family (Scrophulariaceae) frequently has a number of its showy members on grassland ranges. Presented immediately below were two such brightly colored species growing on the ecotone of two overlaping black greasewood-dominated savanna range types.
40. Painting the the range red- Broadbract or wholeleaf Indian paintbrush (Castilleja integra) on an ecotone between a black greasewood-galleta savannah aand a black greasewood-Indian ricegrass-muhly savannah. This species along with crownleaf evening-primrose, Fremont's groundsel, Engelmann's fleabane, fragrant or purple milkvetch and Drummond's milkvetch were all neighbors growing within yards of each other. It was a plant photographer's paradise, and the clouds cleared just in time. Moses parting the Red Sea was slightly more miracelous.
The second of these two slides was a top-down view of the same plant shown in the firest slide.
There are numerous Castilleja species on the Great Plains and adjoining areas. For the eastern slope of Colorado Weber (1990, ps. 338-339) listed eleven Castilleja species in addition to this one.
Saguache County, Colorado. Mid-June, full-bloom stage.
41. Fire engine had nothing on this forb- Inflorescences of broadbract or wholeleaf Indian paintbrush. Closeup photograph of the sexual shoots of the plant seen in the two preceding photogrphs. Saguache County, Colorado. Mid-June, full-bloom stage.
42. Purple with black- Rocky Mountain beardtongue (Penstemon strictus) growing on edge of an abandoned field invaded by black greasewood. Prior to farming this land had been an ecotone between black greasewood-Indian ricegrass-muhly savanna and black greasewood-galleta savanna. Now the greasewood and cheatgrass were about the only ones who stayed behind to rebuild the plant community, except for this brillantly adorned forb whose ancestors had undoubtedly been conspicuous members of the former "botanical metropolis".
Costillo County, Colorado. Mid-June, full-bloom stage.
43. Beauty is where you find it- Sexual shoots of Rocky Mountain beardtongue on go-back ground on a transition zone between greasewood-galleta savanna and greasewood-Indian ricegrass-muhly savanna. These richly arrayed floral stalks beckoned the promish of better things vegetational through the process of secondary plant succession. Costillo County, Colorado. Mid-June, full-bloom stage.
44. Greasewood-grass savanna- A savanna of black greasewood and plains reedgrass (Calamagrostis montanensis) on a basin in the greater floodplain, the valley, of the South Fork of Powder River. There were a few plants of basin big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata subspecies tridentata).
Your author looked for, but did not find any cover of inland saltgrass (Distichlis stricta) even though conceivably this land form was satisfactory habitat for that halophytic species. Instead, some scattered plants (a few patches) of the rhizomatous plains bluegrass (Poa airda) were encountered amid the larger, rhizomatous plains reedgrass that, by routh estimate, comprised about nine out of ten units of herbaceous cover.
Greasewood-dominated range plant communities were discussed briefly in Knight et al. (2014, ps. 134). The range vegetation presented here was an example of the greasewood-grass community noted in this discussion.
Natrona County, Wyoming. Late June- early estival aspect.
45. Herbaceous buddy- Plains reedgrass (Calamagrostis montanensis) was the climax dominant herbaceous species on a black greasewood shrub-grass savanna on the floodplain (valley) of the South Fork of Powder River. Some of the panicles on these two cespitose plants were windblown attesting to the ever-presence of this defining atmospheric factor.
Natrona County, Wyoming. Soft dough, grain stage.
46. Details of greasewood's hrbaceous pal- Panicle with spikelets of immature caryopses (left) and portion of an axesual shoot of plains reedgrass (right) that was the dominant herbaceous species on a black greasewood-grass savanna that developed along the South Fork of the Powder River.
Natrona County, Wyoming. Soft dough, grain stage.
The Wyoming Basin is a physiographic province (Fenneman, 1936, ps. 133-149) situated amid the Middle Rocky Mountains, Great Plains, and Colorado Plateau physiographic provinces. The Wyoming Basin actually consist of several smaller basins (eg. Carbon, Wind River Basin, Bridger Basin) and low mountains ranges including Owl Creek, Wind River, Rattlesnake, Sweetwater, and Green Mountains (or Hills). Fenneman (10936, p. 148) explained thte "the Wyoming Basin is primarily a grazing country" with appreciable areas haaving "too little vegetation even to support herss". Even on these most harsh areas range vegetation is important from the standpoint of erosion moderation and recreational space ("room to roam").
The Wyoming Basin is similar to the Great Basin--though much smaller in area--with the two having similar range scrub types including salt deserts and foothill shrublands with Juniperus species. Treatments of these range plant communities was given below.
In the Wyoming Basin of northcentral Wyoming and extreme southcentral Montana a saline climatic desert is the basic environment for several range plant communities, the most distinctive or unique of which is a shrubland or scrub range type dominated by a low-growing shrub known variously as Nuttall's saltbush, Gardner's saltbush, saltsage, or moundscale (Atriplex nuttalli= A. gardneri). This saltbush desert scrub "is perhaps the most arid vegetation type of the intermountain basins" (Knight, 1994, p.115).
Aesthetically speaking, the general appearance of this landscape could be described subjectively as "stark", "barren", "desolate" "forlorn", "forboding", or in the hoity-toity, namby-pamby lingo of politicians and chambers of commerce "uninviting". In fact, from an aesthtetic standpoint this scrub is so "damn ugly" that it has " a beauty all its own" (beauty, that is to desert rats and some seasoned rangemen). Other than bare, shifting sand dunes and wave-washed beaches this is some of the most sparsely vegetated of all natural terrestrial environments. (Your author enjoyed this range type and relished putting it in this publication: "sorta rounded things out").
Wyoming Basin saltbush shrubland or saltdesert shrubland makes good winter range, especially for sheep. Gardner's or Nuttall's saltbush is a valuable browse that is long-lived (up to fifty years of age) with extensive root systems. Most reproduction in in this low-growing shrub is asexual by root sprouting or layering (Knight, 1994, p. 116; Knight et al., 2014, ps. 135-140 passim).
Gardner's or Nuttall's saltbush-dominated saltdesert basin scrub (a cold desert shrubland) was not specifically described in the Society for Range Management rangeland cover types (Shiflet, 1994), but by that treatment this distinctive range cover type would have to be a variant of Salt Desert Shrub (SRM 414). This range habitat or ecosystem would be some form of a saline upland range site. Other descriptive titles of this range plant community were given in captions below. Best description at time of this writing was of Mat Saltbush Shrubland by Montana Field Guides and NatureServe Explorer (both online) and that by Knight (1994, p. 116) and Knight et al. (2014, ps. 135-140 passim).
47. Beauty (at least for rangemen) in starkness- A consociation of Nuttall's or Gardner's saltbush in the Wyoming Basin. Consociation is a Clementsian association of one dominant species. In this case, the whole range plant community nearly consisted of one species; in fact, more like a population of Nuttall's saltbush. The associate shrubs were two Artemisia species: 1) bud sage or bud sagebrush (Artemisia spinescens) and 2) birdfoot sagewort (A. pedatifida). There were a few widely spaced, and extremely depauperate plants of shadscale (Atriplex confertifolia), spiny hopsage (Grayia spinosa), and winterfat (Eurotia lanata). Specimens of these latter three shrub species appeared stunted and were "overwhelmed" by the dominant Nuttall's or Gardner's saltbush; they typically grew within larger plants of this saltbush.
What viewers see here and below was the way it looked in early summer. Just imagine how forboding and stark it appeared in late summer or by autumn. (There was very little grass to green up and plants of Atriplex nuttalli= A. gardneri and the two Artemisia species looked like death warmed over.) Like the homely, good girl next door it was pretty in its own way. Students can see below that Gardner's saltbush is so cottonpickin' ugly that its cute (sort of).
The few grasses growing on this allotment were bottlebrush squirreltail (Sitanion hystrix), Indian ricegrass (Orzopsis hymenoides), and one of the bluegrasses that was or, at least, closely resembled Sandberg's bluegrass (Poa sandbergii= P. secunda). There were also some scattered plants of sand dropseed (Sporobolus cryptancrus) and, in drainages, alkali sacaton (Sporobolus aeroides). Grass cover was scant, but there was almost no cheatgrass or downy brome. This was not a degraded range; it was probably in high Good range condition class.
The best sources that this author could find regarding range vegetation of the Gardner's saltbush (known earlier as Nuttall's saltbush, moundscale, or saltsage) type was Montana Field Guides and NatureServe Explorer (both online). Knight (1994, p. 116) and Knight et al. (2014, ps. 135-140 passim) also provided useful information from a Range Management perspective, but coverage was about as short as the saltbush itself. C'mon y'all this desert scrub types deserves more than that, if for no other reason than that it is so damned desolate.
Bureau of Land Management allotment, Cody field office; Big Horn County, Wyoming. Late June. FRESNo. 30 (Desert Shrub Shrubland Ecosystem), K-34 (Saltbush-Greasewood). SRM 414 (Salt Desert Shrub), variant form thereof. Closest in Brown et al. (1998, p. 40) was Saltbush Series 152.17, Great Basin Desertscrub 152.1 of Cold Temperate Desertland. Inter-Mountain Basins Mat Saltbush Shrubland (NatureServe Explorer, online) Wyoming Basin, Bighorn Salt Desert Basins 18g Ecoregion 18g (Chapman et al, 2004).
48. A uniform and uncomplicated physiography- An Inter-Mountain Basins Mat Saltbush Shrubland (NatureServe Explorer, online) or, also, saltbush shrubland, saltdesert shrubland, saltdesert basin scrub (a cold desert shrubland) that was a consociation of Gardneer's or Nuttall's saltbush (known also as saltsage or moundscale)that developed in the Wyoming Basin. The associate shrub species were Bud sage or bud sagebrush and birdfoot sagewort, two Artemisia species. There was very little grass cover, but this was fairly diverse consisting of bottlebrush squirreltail, Indian ricegrass, and Sandberg's bluegrass.
In other words, this was clearly an Atriplex-Artemisia saltdesert scrub with widely dispersed cover of native, perennial grass species--and almost no cheatgrass or downy brome. This range plant community was a shrubland range type and not a shrub-grass savanna. More specifically this should have been given its own Society for Range Management rangeland cover type (Shiflet, 1994) title as something like Gardner's Saltbush Salt Desert Shrub. Given omission of such in Shiflet (1994) this climax range vegetation had to be viewed as a variant of SRM 414.
Bureau of Land Management allotment, Cody field office; Big Horn County, Wyoming. Late June. FRESNo. 30 (Desert Shrub Shrubland Ecosystem), K-34 (Saltbush-Greasewood). SRM 414 (Salt Desert Shrub), variant form thereof. Closest in Brown et al. (1998, p. 40) was Saltbush Series 152.17, Great Basin Desertscrub 152.1 of Cold Temperate Desertland. Inter-Mountain Basins Mat Saltbush Shrubland (NatureServe Explorer, online). Wyoming Basin, Bighorn Salt Desert Basins 18g Ecoregion 18g (Chapman et al, 2004).
49. Nondescript members of a nondescript cast- Bud sage (Artemisia spinescens), left, and Gardner's or Nuttall's saltbush (Atriplex gardneri= A. nuttalli), right, were an associate and the dominant species, respectively, on a a cold desert shrubland referred to as a [Gardner's or Nuttall's saltbush] saltdesert shrubland, saltdesert basin scrub, or inter-mountain basins shrubland usually with the [common name preceding as the scrub or shrubland designation].
Bureau of Land Management allotment, Cody field office; Big Horn County, Wyoming. Late June. FRESNo. 30 (Desert Shrub Shrubland Ecosystem), K-34 (Saltbush-Greasewood). SRM 414 (Salt Desert Shrub), variant form thereof. Closest in Brown et al. (1998, p. 40) was Saltbush Series 152.17, Great Basin Desertscrub 152.1 of Cold Temperate Desertland. Inter-Mountain Basins Mat Saltbush Shrubland (NatureServe Explorer, online). Wyoming Basin, Bighorn Salt Desert Basins 18g Ecoregion 18g (Chapman et al, 2004).
50. A salty survivor- Nuttall's saltbush, Gardner's saltbush,, saltsage, or moundscale (Atriplex nuttalli= A. gardneri) on a saltdesert scrub range in the Wyoming Basin. Nuttall's saltbush was not described in any of the standard range browse plants works except by Dayton (1931, p. 31) and only then briefly. Dayton (1931. p.31) specified that Nuttall's saltbush was the most important Atriplex species on Wyoming ranges. Nuttall's or Gardner's saltbush is extremely palatable and with shoots/branchesso easily broken it can be eliminated from ranges by overbrowsing.
This member of the Chenopodaceae is just one "reason" why this family is second only to the Rosaceae as the most important and valuable family of browse plants on North American ranges.
Bureau of Land Management allotment, Cody field office; Big Horn County, Wyoming. Late June. FRESNo. 30 (Desert Shrub Shrubland Ecosystem), K-34 (Saltbush-Greasewood). SRM 414 (Salt Desert Shrub), variant form thereof. Closest in Brown et al. (1998, p. 40) was Saltbush Series 152.17, Great Basin Desertscrub 152.1 of Cold Temperate Desertland. Inter-Mountain Basins Mat Saltbush Shrubland (NatureServe Explorer, online). Wyoming Basin, Bighorn Salt Desert Basins 18g Ecoregion 18g (Chapman et al, 2004).
51. Salty shoots- Shoots of Atriplex nuttallii or A. gardneri, the dominant and principal feed plant on saltdesert scrub range in the Wyoming Basin. These shoots were alive (even thriving) although they may appear dead or dormant to the unseasoned "range eye".
Bureau of Land Management allotment, Cody field office; Big Horn County, Wyoming. Late June.
52. Better than it looks- Details of leaves and young fruits of Nuttall's or Gardner's saltbush on a saltdesert scrub range in the Wyoming Basin.
Bureau of Land Management allotment, Cody field office; Big Horn County, Wyoming. Late June.
53. View from somewhere else- Smaller plants of Nuttall's, or Gardner's saltbush growing on an abandoned field that was currently the location of a town of black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) in the Central Great (High) Plains.
Platte County, Wyoming. Mid-June; pre-bloom stage of phenology.
Knight (1994, ps. 111, 115) described birdfoot sagewort or birdfoot sage (Artemisia pedatifida ) and bud sageword or bud sage (Artemisia spinescens) as being two of the characteristic range plants associated with Nuttall's or Gardner's saltbush. God gave quail and manna from heaven on this trip and the author was able to "capture" both of these associate species for students' further enlightenment. These two Artemisia species were presented immediately below.
54. Barely budding on a salt desert- Bud sage or bud sagebrush (Artemisia spinescens) growing on the same range as the Nuttall's or Gardner's saltbush (and right next to them) introduced immediately above. These two photographs were taken within a few feet and minutes of each other. The difference in lightness/darkness of backgrounds was due 100% to a Epson Perfection (that it most definitely is not) 600 scanner. Color of soil surface and plant tissue in the second slide was correctly reproduced . The scanner blew the upper or first slide which even Adobe Photoshop ("and all the king's men") could not correct completely. The Adobe technology did help to large degree (you should have seen the raw scan) in restoring original color of a Fujichraome Provia 199F slide image.
Bureau of Land Management allotment, Cody field office; Big Horn County, Wyoming. Late June.
55. Budding sexual shoot- Terminus of a sexual shoot of bud sage growing on the same range as Nuttall's saltbush and the bud sagebrush plants exhibited immediately above.
Bureau of Land Management allotment, Cody field office; Big Horn County, Wyoming. Late June.
56. Another sagebrush on saltdesert range- A plant of birdfoot sagewort (Artemisia pedatifida) growing on the same Nuttall's or Gardner's saltbush-dominated basin saline desert scrub in the Wyoming Basin. This specimen was growing adjacent to the bud sage (sagebrush) and Nuttall's saltbush plants presented immediately above.
Bureau of Land Management allotment, Cody field office; Big Horn County, Wyoming. Late June.
57. Salted squirrelly- Two plants of bottlebrush squirreltail (Sitanion hystrix) growing on a Nuttall's saltbush or mat saltbush-dominated cold desert scrubland known variously as inter-mountain basins mat saltbush scrub, Gardner's saltbush shrubland, saltdesert shrubland, or saltdesert basin scrub. Squiorreltail bottlebrush was the dominant grass on this range. There were fewer plants of Indian ricegrass and Sandberg's bluegrass. Although Indian ricegrass (State Grass of Utah and Nevada) is generally more palatable and could have been reduced by overgrazing, bottlebrush squirreltail would probably be a potential dominant of this climax range plant community on a saline upland range site. It is likely that for this saline upland range site, at certain proportions bottlebrush squirreltail is a decreaser beyond which it is an increaser.
Bottlebrush squirreltail is on the list of 200 species of the Society for Range Management-sponsored International Range Plant Identification Contest (Stubbendieck et al., 1992, ps.214-215). These authors stated that this member of the wheat or barley tribe (Tritaceae or Hordeae) had Fair forage value for cattle and horses and Poor forage value for sheep. Furthermore, the long awns can contaminate wool while sharp calluses on lemmas can inflict mechanical injury to eyes. The Range Plant Handbook (Forest Service, 1940, G107) proved once again to be an old standby for discussion of this species. Interpretations of the feed or forage value of squirreltail bottlebrush by the Forest Service (1940, G107) differed somewhat from that of the Society for Range Management (Stubbendieck et al., 1992, p. 215) with the former rating this cool-season native as being Fair for sheep and Fair up to Good for cattle. This was reported to be especially the case for desert ranges and particularily on fall and winter range (Forest Service, 1940, G107); apparently palatability is quite variable consistent with extreme variability in morphological features of bottlebrush squirreltail.
There were a few other plants of bottlebrush squirreltail to the center rear of these two featured specimens. Plants to the left (lower left corner) and most of those to rear of these two cespitose individuals were Gardner's or Nuttall's saltbush.
Allotment, Cody Field Office, Bureau of Land Management, Big Horn County, Wyoming.
Location note: contiguous with the Gardner's or Nuttall's saltbush desert scrub (and still in the Big Horn Basin) was a semiarid grassland dominated by western wheatgrass (Agropyron smithii) that developed on dense clay, saline soils. Presentation and discussion of this Big Horn Basin western wheatgrass mixed prairie was included in the Grassland chapter entitled Mixed Prairie- IB (northern Great Plains).
Swept-over look- Sweeping view of a Gardner saltbush-western wheatgrasss avanna in Wyoming Basin in southcentral Wyoming. This was an example of what would be described by the Daubenmire (1968) habitat type method of vegetation description as a Gardner saltbush-western wheatgrass (Atriplex garderni-Agropyron smithii) habitat type.
Other important range plant species included Indian ricegrass, bottlebrush squirreltail (Sitanion hystix), Sandberg's bluegrass (Poa sandbergi= P. secunda), galleta, Wyoming big sagebrush, sticky rabbitbrush (Chrusothamnus visdiciflorus), desert trumpet or spindle buckwheat (Eriogonum inflatum var. fusiforme), shortstem buckwheat (E. brevicaule), winterfat (Eurotia lanata), threadleaf caric-sedge (Carex filifolia), and cushion phlox (Phlox pulvinata).
Physiogonomy and general structure of this shrub-grass savanna were shown here. Greater detail of community structure and species composition of this same savanna range were shown in the next two-slide/caption.
This savanna range vegetation developed on on a relatively level land surface that was lower in elevation than that of a contiguous undulating or rolling upland land surface that supported a western wheatgrass-Wyoming big sagebrush savanna (see below).
Bureau of Land Management, Rawlins field office, Carbon County,
Wyoming. Mid-July. FRES No. 30 (Desert Shrub Shrubland Ecosystem), K-34 (Saltbush-Greasewood).
SRM 414 (Salt Desert Shrub), variant form thereof. Interpreted as a shrubland
or shrub, first-grass, seeond savanna the closest in Brown et al. (1998, p.
40) was Saltbush Series 152.17, Great Basin Desertscrub 152.1 of Cold Temperate
Desertland. Interpreted as a grass, first-shrub, second savanna the closest
in Brown et al. (998, p. 40) was Wheatgrass Series 142,21, Great Basin Shrub-Grassland
142.2 of Cold Temperate Grassland 142. Atriplex gardneri / Pascopyrum
(= Agropyron) smithii Dwarf-shrubland
(NatureServe Explorer, online). Wyoming Basin- Rolling Sagebrush Steppe Ecoregion
18a (Chapman et al, 2004).
Basin savannah- Community structure and species composition of a Gardner saltbush-western wheatgrass savannah that deveoped on a fine-textured soil in the Wyoming Basin in southcentral Wyoming. The first slide served as a "photoplot" of the overall range plant community which in addition to the co-dominants included Indian ricegrass, Wyoming big sagebrush, sticky rabbitbrush, bottlebrush squirreltail, Sandberg's bluegrass, galleta, shortstem buckwheat, desert trumpet or spindle buckwheat, winterfat, threadleaf caric-sedge, and cushion phlox.
In this range savanna the highly rhizomatous western wheatgrass, which usually has a sod-forming habitat, grew in small enough local patches that plants of this species appeared to be more like those of a bunchgrass. It was possible that the extremely harsh nature of this range habitat was marginal for western wheatgrass such that plants grew only to smaller aizes that covered a much more restricted area of rangeland.
The second slide featured a local consociation of Gardner's saltbush.
Range vegetation of this savanna was at high seral status (probably advanced subclimax) so that it was in high Good to low Excellent range condition class. This Gardner's saltbush-western wheatgrass savanna community developed on a fairly level land surface. This was in contrast to an adjacent (conterminous) western wheatgrass-Wyoming big sagebrush savanna that had developed on an adjoining rolling upland (shown below).
Note: name and description of this range site could not be determined because there was not a published soil survey for this county or area, plus those of adjoining counties and areas did not include any rangeland descriptions that corresponded to the range plant community presented here.
Bureau of Land Management, Rawlins field office, Carbon County,
Wyoming. Mid-July. FRES No. 30 (Desert Shrub Shrubland Ecosystem), K-34 (Saltbush-Greasewood).
SRM 414 (Salt Desert Shrub), variant form thereof. Interpreted as a shrubland
or shrub, first-grass, seeond savanna the closest in Brown et al. (1998, p.
40) was Saltbush Series 152.17, Great Basin Desertscrub 152.1 of Cold Temperate
Desertland. Interpreted as a grass, first-shrub, second savanna the closest
in Brown et al. (998, p. 40) was Wheatgrass Series 142,21, Great Basin Shrub-Grassland
142.2 of Cold Temperate Grassland 142. Atriplex gardneri / Pascopyrum
(= Agropyron) smithii Dwarf-shrubland
(NatureServe Explorer, online). Wyoming Basin- Rolling Sagebrush Steppe Ecoregion
18a (Chapman et al, 2004).
Different kinds on a basin savanna- General view of the interior of a Gardner saltbush-western wheatgrass savanna seen in the first slide. By the way, that is also the habitat type based on the method developed and explained by Daubenmire (1968)). The second slide was a "nested photoplot" inside the general view of the first slide. Major range plant species in the first image included western wheatgrass, Gardner saltbush, Indian ricegrass, Wyoming big sagebrush, sticky rabbitbrush, galleta, bottlebrush, squirreltail, spindle buckwheat or desert trumpet, and moss phlox.
Range plant species featured in the second slide included Gardner's saltbush, western wheatgrass, Indian ricegrass, bottlebrush, squirreltail, and moss phlox.
Bureau of Land Management, Rawlins field office, Carbon County,
Wyoming. Mid-July. FRES No. 30 (Desert Shrub Shrubland Ecosystem), K-34 (Saltbush-Greasewood).
SRM 414 (Salt Desert Shrub), variant form thereof. Interpreted as a shrubland
or shrub, first-grass, seeond savanna the closest in Brown et al. (1998, p.
40) was Saltbush Series 152.17, Great Basin Desertscrub 152.1 of Cold Temperate
Desertland. Interpreted as a grass, first-shrub, second savanna the closest
in Brown et al. (998, p. 40) was Wheatgrass Series 142,21, Great Basin Shrub-Grassland
142.2 of Cold Temperate Grassland 142. Atriplex gardneri / Pascopyrum
(= Agropyron) smithii Dwarf-shrubland
(NatureServe Explorer, online). Wyoming Basin- Rolling Sagebrush Steppe Ecoregion
18a (Chapman et al, 2004).
Looking down on the co-dominants- A distant top-down view of Gardner's saltbush (far-left corner), western wheatgrass (right), and dead or dormant (hard to tell) moss or cushion phlox (in between) on the Gardner's saltbush-western wheatgrass savanna shown above that developed in the Wyoming Basin (insouthcentral Wyoming). This human-height aerial shot revealed the open turf of the typically sod-forming, rhizomatous western wheatgrass as well as the comparatively short statue of this mid-grass species.
This view also showed the limited foliar or aerial cover of plants--of both individual plants and collective or cumulative cover--in this range vegetation. Or said another way, the relatively large amount of bare ground of this rangeland cover type.
Bureau of Land Management, Rawlins field office, Carbon County,
Wyoming. Mid-July. FRES No. 30 (Desert Shrub Shrubland Ecosystem), K-34 (Saltbush-Greasewood).
SRM 414 (Salt Desert Shrub), variant form thereof. Interpreted as a shrubland
or shrub, first-grass, seeond savanna the closest in Brown et al. (1998, p.
40) was Saltbush Series 152.17, Great Basin Desertscrub 152.1 of Cold Temperate
Desertland. Interpreted as a grass, first-shrub, second savanna the closest
in Brown et al. (998, p. 40) was Wheatgrass Series 142,21, Great Basin Shrub-Grassland
142.2 of Cold Temperate Grassland 142. Atriplex gardneri / Pascopyrum
(= Agropyron) smithii Dwarf-shrubland
(NatureServe Explorer, online). Wyoming Basin- Rolling Sagebrush Steppe Ecoregion
18a (Chapman et al, 2004).
Grass compatriots- Indian ricegrass (left) and bottlebrush squirreltail (right) were two major grasses on a Gardner saltbush-western wheatgrass savannah in the Wyoming Basin of southcentral Wyoming. Indian ricegrass was an associate species to the dominant grass, western wheatgrass. Bottlebrush squirreltail and galleta were important grasses on this range though of substantially less cover than the dominant and associate grass species.
These two grass plants were growing on the same range that was shown and described in the preceding three slide/caption sets.
Bureau of Land Management, Rawlins field office, Carbon County,
Wyoming. Mid-July. FRES No. 30 (Desert Shrub Shrubland Ecosystem), K-34 (Saltbush-Greasewood).
SRM 414 (Salt Desert Shrub), variant form thereof. Interpreted as a shrubland
or shrub, first-grass, seeond savanna the closest in Brown et al. (1998, p.
40) was Saltbush Series 152.17, Great Basin Desertscrub 152.1 of Cold Temperate
Desertland. Interpreted as a grass, first-shrub, second savanna the closest
in Brown et al. (998, p. 40) was Wheatgrass Series 142,21, Great Basin Shrub-Grassland
142.2 of Cold Temperate Grassland 142. Atriplex gardneri / Pascopyrum
(= Agropyron) smithii Dwarf-shrubland
(NatureServe Explorer, online). Wyoming Basin- Rolling Sagebrush Steppe Ecoregion
18a (Chapman et al, 2004).
Squirrely grass- Two examples of bottlebrush squirreltail (Sitanion hystrix) growing on the Gardner's saltbush-western wheatgrass savanna shown above that was inthe Wyoming Basin (in southcentral Wyoming). As was the case for all plants on this harsh rangeland environment, individual plants of bottlwbrush squirreltail were much smaller than was typic for the species. This small plant size was veryconspicuous for the more abundant Indian ricegrass and western wheatgrass.
Bureau of Land Management, Rawlins field office, Carbon County, Wyoming. Mid-July; grain-ripe stge of phenology.
Short on soil and stems- Plant of shortstem wild-buckwheat (Eriogonum brevicaule) in the range plant community of a Gardner's saltbush-western wheaatgrass savanna in the Wyoming Basin physiographic province. This was the same range that has been featured throughout coverage of that range cover type.
A second specimen of this subshrub ( probably best described as suffrutescent) species was shown in the next two-slide/caption unit...
Bureau of Land Management, Rawlins field office, Carbon County, Wyoming. Mid-July.
Not short of flowers- Topdown view (first slide) and side view (second slide) of a plant of shortstem wild-buckwheat growing on a Gardner's saltbush-western wheatgrass savanna in southcentral Wyoming, part of the Wyoming Basin. The side view included only a portion of the aboveground part that was presented in the first slide.
This was the second specimen of this subshrub species presented herein.
Bureau of Land Management, Rawlins field office, Carbon County, Wyoming. Mid-July.
Sample of the savanna vegetation- "Photoquadrant" of
Bureau of Land Management, Rawlins field office, Carbon County,
Wyoming. Mid-July. FRES No. 30 (Desert Shrub Shrubland Ecosystem), K-34 (Saltbush-Greasewood).
SRM 414 (Salt Desert Shrub), variant form thereof. Interpreted as a shrubland
or shrub, first-grass, seeond savanna the closest in Brown et al. (1998, p.
40) was Saltbush Series 152.17, Great Basin Desertscrub 152.1 of Cold Temperate
Desertland. Interpreted as a grass, first-shrub, second savanna the closest
in Brown et al. (998, p. 40) was Wheatgrass Series 142,21, Great Basin Shrub-Grassland
142.2 of Cold Temperate Grassland 142. Atriplex gardneri / Pascopyrum
(= Agropyron) smithii Dwarf-shrubland
(NatureServe Explorer, online). Wyoming Basin- Rolling Sagebrush Steppe Ecoregion
18a (Chapman et al, 2004).
Camera malfunction, but the lesson might be salvagable (maybe)- Plant of sticky rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus viscidiflorus) surrounded by Indian ricegrass on the range of the Gardner saltbush-westrn wheatgrass habitat type featured in the preceding slide/caption sets.
The aperature on the Micro-Nikkor lens being used for this photograph was sticking--staying open too much or too little and not re-adjusting--so that the previous exposure setting (based on that light meter reading) continued to be used for the next slide. The result was an image that was either underexposed or, as in this case, overexposed. The apparent cause of this malfunction was hardening of the white grease used to lubricate inner workings, including exposure ring, of the macro-lens. The white grease had dried out enough that the exposure ring was not sliding back and forth properly. After discovering numerous ruined (improperly exposed) images in three rolls or film the lens went to the repairman and was re-lubricated (with a lubricant superior to white grease).
The lens is back in order and still contributing to Range Types of North America, but the legacy of some ruined slides remained. Even Adobe PhotoShop could not salvage this image, but it did underscore the importance of preventive maintenance and dependability of equipment. In other words, there was still a lesson in this image though not the one intended. Besides, viewers can still see an example of sticky rabbbitbrush on this Wyoming Basin shrub-grass savanna. (And it you will use your imagination you can still "see" Indian ricegrass to the left and left-rear and grazed galleta to the right-rear of the at-full-bloom rabbitbrush.)
Bureau of Land Management, Rawlins field office, Carbon County, Wyoming. Mid-July; peak bloom stage of phenology of sticky rabbitbrush.
Another basin savanna- A savanna of western wheatgrass, Indian ricegrass, and Wyoming big sagebrush that developed on a rolling uplands landscape in the Wyoming Bsin in southcentral Wyoming. Western wheatgrass and Woming big sagebrush were the dominant grass and dominant shrub--thus, co-dominants--of range vegetation that would be a western wheatgrass-Wyoming big sagebrush (Agropyron smithii-Artemisin tridentata subsp. wyomingensis) habitat type by the method developed by and, later, elaborated on in Daubenmire (1968).
This savanna range community was conterminous with--and on the same pasture as--the Gardner saltbush-western wheatgrass savanna that developed on lower, less undulating land (covered immediately above). All range plant species except desert trumpet or spindle buckwheat grew in both savanna range communities, on both range sites. This biggest difference between the two adjoining--except for an intrrupted transition zone--was in relative proportions (cover, density, etc,) of Wyoming big sagebrush and Gardner's saltbush. In addition, relative and absolute grass cover, especially of western wheatgrass, was considerably greater on the rolling upland western wheatgrass-Wyoming big sagebrush.
This was why the respective range plant communities had a shrub listed first for one savanna and habitat type (Gardner saltbush-western wheatgrass) and a grass listed first folr the other savanna and habitt type (western wheatgrass-Wyoming big sagebrush).
On both of these adjoining range plant communities the rhizomatous, typically sod-forming western wheatgrass grew in comparatively small, localized areas rather than as large continuous spaces as is more characteristic of this species. In fact, habit or morphology of western wheatgrass made it appear that plants of this species were cespitose or more of a bunchgrass.
This western wheatgrass-Wyoming big sagebrush range plant community was regarded as being the climax or potential natural vegetation though it was perhaps subclimax or at an advanced seral stage just below climax in having less cover of the climax dominant and associate grass species (= the decreasers), western wheatgrass and Indian ricegrass. Nothwithstanding, this range vegetation was interpreted by this reporting rangeman as being in Excellent range condition class. It was representative of the potential range plant community for this range site.
Note: name and description of this range site could not be determined because there was not a published soil survey for this county or area, plus those of adjoining counties and areas did not include any rangeland descriptions that corresponded to the range plant community presented here.
Bureau of Land Management, Rawlins field office, Carbon County, Wyoming. Mid-July. FRES No. 29 (Sagebrush Shrubland Ecosystem), K-50 (Wheatgrass-Needlegrass Shrubsteppe). SRM- None: closest (but out of the region); 612 (Sagebrush-Grass), variant form thereof. Closest in Brown et al. (1998, p. 40) was Wheatgrass Series 142,21, Great Basin Shrub-Grassland 142.2 of Cold Temperate Grassland 142. Atriplex gardneri / Pascopyrum (= Agropyron) smithii Dwarf-shrubland (NatureServe Explorer, online). Wyoming Basin- Rolling Sagebrush Steppe Ecoregion 18a (Chapman et al, 2004).
A narrow ecotone- "Photoplot" of a range plant community that comprised a "belt" of transition vegetation between two otherwise conterminous grass-shrub savannah communities (habitat types): 1) Gardner saltbush-western wheatgrass savannah and 2) western wheatgrass-Wyoming big sagebrush savanna that developed in the Wyoming Basin in southcentral Wyoming.
This transition zone was not only a narrow ecotone, but also an interrupted one as there were areas where the two savanna communities changed abruptly or "instaneously" without having any apparent transition vegetation.
Range plant species in this "photquadrant" included Gardner's saltbush in right foreground, western wheatgrass in left foreground, Wyoming big sagebrush in upper right corner, and sporadically in mid-ground and right background bottlebrush squirreltail, Indian ricegrass, galleta, and moss phlox.
Bureau of Land Management, Rawlins field office, Carbon County, Wyoming. Mid-July. Transition between the two immediately preceding range plant communities. Wyoming Basin- Rolling Sagebrush Steppe Ecoregion 18a (Chapman et al, 2004).
Cushioned on a Wyoming Basin savanna.- Plant of cushion phlox (Phlox pulvinata) with "spent flowers" ( senesced inflorescences) growing on a savana range--an example of the Gardner saltbush-western wheatgrass habitat type--in the Wyoming Basin in southcentral Wyoming. This is a very distinctive and showy range forb, but strike the showy part once its flowers have completed their short life span.
This forb species grew in both Gardner saltbush-western wheatgrasss savanna (habitat type) of a lower, more nearly level landscape and the western wheatgrass-Wyoming big sagebrush savanna (habitat type) of a rolling upland landscape featured in preceding slide/caption units.
Bureau of Land Management, Rawlins field office, Carbon County, Wyoming. Mid-July, senesced stage of flowers and ripening fruit phenology.
Paired up- Female plant (left) and male plant (right)-in both slides--of Gardner's saltbush (Atriplex garderni) growing on a Gardner's saltbush-western wheatgrass savanna in the Wyoming Basin in southcentral Wyoming.
Atriplex species are dioecious with male and female flowers borne on separate plants (ie. male and female plants).
Most of the grass surrounding these two plants was western wheatgrass.
Bureau of Land Management, Rawlins field office, Carbon County, Wyoming.
Mars version- Upper/outer portion of a shoot with a male inflorescence (first slide) and a male inflorescence or flower cluster (second slide) of Gardner's saltbush (Atriplex garderni). This specimen was growing in the Gardner's saltbush-western wheatgrass savanna that was shown and described above. This was southcentral Wyoming in the Wyoming Basin physiographic province.
The Atriplex species are dioecious with separate male and female plants.
Bureau of Land Management, Rawlins field office, Carbon County, Wyoming. Mid-July; immediate post-anthesis stage of phenology.
Venus version- Three female inflorescences (first slide) and close-up view of part of one of the female flowr clusters (second slide) of Gardner's saltbush. These exmples were on a plant found on in the Gardner's saltbush-western wheatgrass savanna that was shown and described above. They were "happily at home" on the harsh habitat of the Wyoming Basin physiographic province. The location was in southcentral Wyoming which is, in spite of being lonesome, forlorn, and God-forsaken at first flush, God's Country (at least to a rangeman).
Bureau of Land Management, Rawlins field office, Carbon County, Wyoming. Mid-July; ripening fruit (urticles) stage of phenology.
Ones hard to "pigeon-hole: The following six slide/caption units showed and described a mosaic or spatial arrangement of similar yet distinctly different range plant communities that developed on threee different range sites and narrow ecotones among them on clay soils in the Wyoming Basin in southwestern Wyoming. One of these range plant communities was distinctly grassland, a consociation of western wheatgrass (Agropyron smithii), one was either shrubland or sagebrush shrub steppe dominated by Wyoming big sagebrush (Artemisis tridentata subsp. wyomingensis), and the third plant community was a combination of grass and shrub that could best be described as a grass-shrub savanna.
These three different range site/plant plant communities were contiguous (in contact with each other) yet so distinctive as to result in nearly "fence-line contrasts" in some local areas and as gradual ecotones or transition zones in other local spaces.
Given this interspatial contact or connectedness yet natural separation and distinctiveness of range vegetation this section was included both here and in the chapter entitled Mixed Prairie- IC (Southern & Central Great Plains) under the heading, Grasslands of the Wyoming Basin (including shrub savanna forms).
Pattern of soil habitats and their range vegetation- Part of a landscape mosaic of three range plant communities corresonding to three range sites: 1) Clayey, 2) Dense Clay, and 3) Silty Swale. The foreground in this view was part of the Dense Clay range site that was a savanna of low sagebrush (Artemisia arbuscula) and birdsfoot sagebrush (A. pedatifida) with the dominant herbaceous species being Sandberg's blue grass (Poa sandbergii= P. secunda) with other major grsses being Canby's bluegrass (P. canbyi) and Indian reicegrass and lesser cover of the naturalizeed Eurasian annual grass species cheatgrass or downy brome (Bromus tectorum) and Japanese chess or Japanese brome (B. japonicus).
The midground in this image was a degraded Silty Swale range site dominated by Wyoming big sagebrush and with sticky or yellow rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus viscidiflorus) as the associate shrub species and an herbaceous understorey of western wheatgrass and the two annual Bromus species.
Bureau of Land Management, Rock Springs field office, Sweetwater County, Wyoming. Sandberg bluegrass-low sagebrush savanna was FRES No. 29 (Sagebrush Shrubland Ecosystem). K-49 (Sagebrush Steppe), variant thereof. SRM 406 (Low Sagebrush). Not a "good fit" in Brown et al. (1998, p. 40), but closest was Sagebrush Series 152.11, Great Basin Desertscrub 152.1 of Cold Temperate Desertland 152. Wyoming big sagebrush-sticky rabbitbrush was the same except for being SRM 403 (Wyoming Big Sagebrush). Dense Clay and Silty Swale range sites, respectively. (Natural Resources Conservation Service, 2004; Natural Resources Conservation Service, ecological sit descriptions, online). Wyoming Basin- Rolling Sagebrush Steppe ecoregion 18a (Chapman et al., 2004).
Heavy clay, frost heaving, and western wheatgrass- Concociation of western wheatgrass (and likely some thickspike wheatgrass [A. dasystachyum= A. lanceolatus]) on a Clayey range site in the Wyoming Basin of southwestern Wyoming. This grassland presented an amazing example of extreme frost heaving. The rhizomatous wheatgrass species are wonderfully adapted to this form of edaphic habitat.
At various points along its outer edges this heavy clay soil-determined wheatgrass grassland contacted 1) a savanna of low sagebrush and Sandberg's bluegrass (with some birdfoot sagebrush, Canby's bluegrass, Indian ricegrass, cheatgrass,and Japanese brome) on a Dense Clay range site and 2) a former western wheatgrass community degraded (probably mostly by overgrazing) to a Wyoming big sagebrush-sticky rabbitbrush shrubland with some western wheatgrass and less cover of the two annual Bromus species.
Bureau of Land Management, Rock Springs field office, Sweetwater County, Wyoming. FRES No. 38 (Plains Grassland Ecosystem). K-59 (Wheatgrass-Needlegrass). SRM 610 (Wheatgrass). Not a "good fit" in Brown et al. (1998, p. 40), but closest was Wheatgrass Series 142.21, Great Basin Shrub-Grassland 142.2 of Cold Temperate Grassland 142. Clayey range site (Natural Resources Conservation Service, 2004; Natural Resources Conservation Service, ecological sit descriptions, online). Wyoming Basin- Rolling Sagebrush Steppe ecoregion 18a (Chapman et al., 2004).
Dense and low- A savanna of Sandberg's bluegrass and low sagebrush (Artemisia arbuscula) on a Dense Clay range site that was part of a vegetational mosaic ranging from a western wheatgrass-dominated grassland on a heavy clay soil to a former western wheatgrass community on a swale of silty soil that was degraded to a Wyoming big sagebrush-sticky rabbitbrush shrubland.
This slide presented physiogonomy, overall structure, and pattern of the range vegetation (including plant dispersion); general topography of the rangeland; and surface of the high-clay content soil of this savanna ecosystem that was in the Wyoming Basin physiographic province.
Bureau of Land Management, Rock Springs field office, Sweetwater County, Wyoming. FRES No. 29 (Sagebrush Shrubland Ecosystem). K-49 (Sagebrush Steppe), variant thereof. SRM 406 (Low Sagebrush). Not a "good fit" in Brown et al. (1998, p. 40), but closest was Sagebrush Series 152.11, Great Basin Desertscrub 152.1 of Cold Temperate Desertland 152. Dense Clay range site (Natural Resources Conservation Service, 2004; Natural Resources Conservation Service, ecological sit descriptions, online). Wyoming Basin- Rolling Sagebrush Steppe ecoregion 18a (Chapman et al., 2004).
Clay, dense; plants, sort of sparse- A savanna of co-dominants Sandberg's bluegrass and low sagebrush with other species including birdfoot sagerush, Canby's bluegrass, Indian ricegrass, cheatgrass, and Japanese brome that developed on a range site of dense in the Wyoming Basin physiographic province in southwest Wyoming. At some points (local microsites) this range plant community was more of a shrubland with some grass cover while in other microhabitats it was more of a savanna form of grassland with much less shrub cover. Hence, any designation of shrubland, grassland, or shrub-grass (or grass-shrub) savanna was arbitrary.
This range plant community was conterminous with two other range sites: 1) Clayey that was a consociation of western wheatgrass and 2) Silty Swale that was a deteriorated western wheatgrass grassland degraded to a shrubland of Wyoming big sagebrush and sticky rabbitbrush.
A characteristic cracked soil surface typical of high clay content was discernible in these two slides.
Bureau of Land Management, Rock Springs field office, Sweetwater County, Wyoming. FRES No. 29 (Sagebrush Shrubland Ecosystem). K-49 (Sagebrush Steppe), variant thereof. SRM 406 (Low Sagebrush). Not a "good fit" in Brown et al. (1998, p. 40), but closest was Sagebrush Series 152.11, Great Basin Desertscrub 152.1 of Cold Temperate Desertland 152. Dense Clay range site (Natural Resources Conservation Service, 2004; Natural Resources Conservation Service, ecological sit descriptions, online). Wyoming Basin- Rolling Sagebrush Steppe ecoregion 18a (Chapman et al., 2004).
Starting to run low on clay- Edge of a Dense Clay range site dominated by Sandberg's bluegrass and with low sagebrush as the associate species (a grass-shrub savanna) contacting the edge of a Silty Swale range site dominated by Wyoming big sagebrush (right mid-ground to upper right corner). Other species in the savanna included birdfoot sagebrush, Canby's bluegrass, Indian ricegrass, cheatgrass, and Japanese chess. In the swale, Wyoming big sagebrush had sticky rabbitbrush as its associate with an interrupted herbaceous understorey of western wheatgrass and lesser cover of cheatgrass and Japanese chess.
This range vegetation was part of a landscape mosaic that also included a western wheatgrass dominated- grassland on heavy clay. These three distinctive soil-determined range site plant communities were contiguous in the Wyoming Basin in southwestern Wyoming.
Bureau of Land Management, Rock Springs field office, Sweetwater County, Wyoming. Sandberg bluegrass-low sagebrush savanna was FRES No. 29 (Sagebrush Shrubland Ecosystem). K-49 (Sagebrush Steppe), variant thereof. SRM 406 (Low Sagebrush). Not a "good fit" in Brown et al. (1998, p. 40), but closest was Sagebrush Series 152.11, Great Basin Desertscrub 152.1 of Cold Temperate Desertland 152. Wyoming big sagebrush-sticky rabbitbrush was the same except for being SRM 403 (Wyoming Big Sagebrush). Dense Clay and Silty Swale range sites, respectively. (Natural Resources Conservation Service, 2004; Natural Resources Conservation Service, ecological sit descriptions, online). Wyoming Basin- Rolling Sagebrush Steppe ecoregion 18a (Chapman et al., 2004).
Where there was a lot less clay- A swale that formed on a silty soil in the Wyoming Basin supported a Wyoming big sagebrush-sticky rabbibrush shrubland resulting from degradation (most likely due to past overgrazing) of a western wheatgrass (and some thickspike wheatgrass) grassland. There was an irregular or sporadic understorey comprised mostly of western wheatgrass with the two naturalized Eurasian annuals, cheatgrass or downy brome and Japanese brome or Japanese chess.
This swale was surrounded by a consociation of western wheatgrass (some thickspike wheatgrass) that developed on a Clayey range site and a savanna of low sagebrush and Sandberg's bluegrass (with some birdfoot sagebrush, Canby's bluegrass, Indian ricegrass, cheatgrass, and Japanese chess) on a Dense Clay range site.
Bureau of Land Management, Rock Springs field office, Sweetwater County, Wyoming. FRES No. 29 (Sagebrush Shrubland Ecosystem). K-49 (Sagebrush Steppe), variant thereof. SRM 403 (Wyoming Big Sagebrush). Sagebrush Series 152.11, Great Basin Desertscrub 152.1 of Cold Temperate Desertland 152 (Brown et al., 1998, p. 40). Silty Swale range site (Natural Resources Conservation Service, 2004; Natural Resources Conservation Service, ecological sit descriptions, online). Wyoming Basin- Rolling Sagebrush Steppe ecoregion 18a (Chapman et al., 2004).
Bad all around- An overgrazed range of low sagebrush (Artemesia arbuscula subsp. longiloba) and western wheatgrass with other native perennial grass species (and these being of limited cover anddensity) being Sandberg's bluegrass and bottlebrush squirreltail. Yes, as to be espected, cheatgrass, downy brome, or broncograss (Bromus tectorum) was present, but surprising this naturalized, annual, Eurasian invader was not as abundant as would be expected. Western wheatgrass remained the major herbaceous species though it was being overused (and, based on poor vigor and runty size of plants) appeared to have been overused for the past few years.
This range was overgrazed. Long-term overuse had been the "range order of the day", but it was possible that this rangeland had been even more severely abused in the past, or even that this range had even recovered somewhat from previous overgrazing. Nonetheless, it was currently being overused with degree of use being severe.
NatureServe Explorer (online) recognized and described a scrubland titled Wyoming Basins Dwarf Sagebrush Shrubland and Steppe, but none of the plant communities described included western wheatgrass. Plus this longterm overused range (excessive graazing defoliation over several grazing years) was obviously a range plant community in some stagte of degradation.
Consistent with poor husbandry of the forage crop, the cattle were wilder than deer. They had obviously been choused (and not just once). For any greenhorns who might happen to read this to chouse is to to drive or herd roughly (Merriam-Webster). Failed husbanery is failed husbandry be it of the range, livestock, and, most likely, people too. As your photographer looked at this abused range and watched the wild cattle high-tail it over the low rise he could not help feeling sorry for the grazier's family and neighbors as well as the pitiful sight sadly (but usefully) shared here.
Bad all around.
Carbon County, Wyoming. Mid-July.
Low on the list- Plant of low sagebrush (Artemisia arbuscula subsp. longiloba), a top-down view. This example of an unpalatable shrub was growing on the currently overused (overgrazing still taking place?) range presented immediately above.
Carbon County, Wyoming. Mid-July.
The following four species of range forbs were growing just outside the overgrazed range of low sagebrush and western wheatgrass in an area from which livestock were excluded (a local staging area of the Wyoming Department of Transportation). Absence of these range forbs from the degraded range could have resulted from cattle having grazing them out and, hence, deomnstrating bovine preference for these four species. Mule deer and pronghorn had access to and, presumedly, fed on both the cattle range and the area excluded from cattle.
Gunnison legacy- Gunnison mariposa lily (Calochortus gunnisonii) growing on a low sagebrush-mixed grass (western wheatgrass, Indianricegrass, galleta) savanna in southcentral Wyoming in the Wyoming Basin physiographic province. These images were of three different neighboring plants ther first of which was a side view of the sexual shoot and the second and third were top-down views of two beautiful flowers.
These three plants were growing in a road materials/road equipment area of the Wyoming Department of Trnsportation that was open to wildlife but on the outside of a fenced cattle range. None were found (and they are prominent conspicuous) in the adjoining cattle-wildlife range.
The mariposa lily species rank just below the native orchids as the ultimate in range forbs. At time of this writing there was not a Wyoming flora as such, but the Wyoming plant list (Bureau of Land Management online) listed only three Calochortus species for the Equality State.
Carbon County, Wyoming. Mid-July.
Parsnips in God's own garden- Parnsip-flower wild-buckwheat (Eriogonum heracleoides) with Artemisia arbuscula growing in a Wyoming Department of Transportation materials/equipment yard that was open to wildlife and closed to livestock (the road department yard was just outside a fenced cattle range). No plants of this showy species could be found on the overgrazed (at least in the past and currently being overused) cattle range. There were several plants of parsnip-flower wild-buckwheat in the large transportation yard.
It would not seem that this species would be palatable to cattle, but for whatever reason no plants of parsnip-flower wild-buckwheat were observed in the cattle pasture. It was probable that sheep had grazed--perhaps heavily--that range in times past. Perhaps E. heracleoides was palatable to sheep. Forest Service (1940, p. 73) stated that E. heracleoides has "little or no forage value".Again, wildlife such as mule deer and pronghorn had ready access to both contiguous areas.
Carbon County, Wyoming. Mid-July; peak-bloom phenologyical stage.
One of the most showy- Part of the flowering specimen of parsnip-flower wild-buckwheat shown above to introduce this extremely conspicuous range forb. This member of the knotweed or smartweed family (Polygonaceae) does have a woody base, but it was still interpreted as a forb (Dayton, 1960, ps. 72-73).
Carbon County, Wyoming. Mid-July; peak-bloom phenologyical stage.
How it got its name- Umbels of parsnip flower wild-buckwheat leave no doubt as to its resemblance to members of the parsley or carrot family (Umbeliferae. Forest Service (1940, p. W73) atated that the specific epithet, heracleoides was in reference to the cowparsnip (Heracleum lanatum).
These infloresecnces were on the plant introduced above that was growing in a Woming Deapartment of Transportation road materials yard accessible to wildlife but not livestock.
Carbon County, Wyoming. Mid-July.
Lot of umbels with lot of flowers in each- Clusters of flowers in the umbel of a parsnip-flower wild-buckwheat growing on a low sagebrush-mixed grass svanna in the Wyoming Basin. This is a range forb of practically no forage value (Forest Service, 1940, p. W73), but it was a fun subject for photographing. Besides, what value any plant species might have in any given range plant community or rangec eosystem is often known to God alone.
It is generally accepted that most of the Eriogonum speies are quite attractive to pollinating insects ranging from bees to butterflies.
Carbon County, Wyoming. Mid-July.
For a forb, a big one- Two large plants (first slide) and a single "extra-large plant (second slide) of Richrdson's geranium (Geranium richardsonii) growing in a highway department road materials yard open to wildlife and inaccessible to livestock in the Wyoming Basin. There were a few of these relatively unpalatable range forbs in this Wyoming Department of Transportation area while the author could not find any plants of Richardson's geranium in an adjoining, degraded and overused cattle range that was also acessible to wildlife.
There had not been any defoliation (degree of use) made on any of the geranium plants although it can be fairly palatable to deer (Stubendieck et al., 1992, p. 375).
Other common names of this member of the geranium family (Geraniaceae) include wild white geranium and Richardson's cranesbill. This latter name is in reference to the supposed shape of the ovary which consist of five united carpels (Smith, 1977, p. 172) so as to remind one of the bill of a crane or stork.
Carbon County, Wyoming. Mid-July.
Another geranium specimen- View of a third plant of Richrdson's geranium that was growing (and not grazed on) in a highway department road materials yard in the Wyoming Plateau in southcentral Wyoming. The second of these two slides presented the upper sexual shoot--with both flowers and fruit--of the plant shown in the first slide.
Richardson's geranium is common and widespread enough to be one of 200 plant species on the International Range Plant Identification Contest sponsored by the Society for Range Management (Stubendieck et al., 1992, p. 374-375), but these authors rated this forb's forage value as : "poor to fair for sheep and deer, poor to worthless for cattle, rarely eaten by horses; worthless after reaching maturity". These words were little changed from the ratings of those in the Range Plant Handbook (Forest Service, 1940, p. W84), but those ratings were for the Southwest. On other parts of the Western Range Geranium species have slightly different value ratings, plus those vary by seasons, range sites, and associated range plant species (Forest Service, 1940, p. W83).
G. richardsonii is a native perennial.
Carbon County, Wyoming. Mid-July.
Richrdson's color- Three views of Richarson's or wild white geranium to present both flowers and fruit of this native range forb. The fruit structure of Geranium species is rather comlicated. The gynoecium (= ovary of the pistil) consist of five united carpels which dehhiscence to bear a sinlge fruit, a schizocarp which typically bears a single seed (Smith, 1977, p. 172).
Carbon County, Wyoming. Mid-July.
Wyoming State Flower on the war path- Inflorescence of desert Indian paintbrush, linearleaf Indian paintbrush, narrowleaf Indian paintbrush, or (lastly for purposesof emphasis), Wyoming Indian paintbrush (Castilleja linariifolia) growing of a low sagebrush-mixed grass savanna in the Wyoming Basin. This specimen was growing on a Wyoming Department of Transportation equipment-road materials area accessible to all wildlife species but fenced off from the nearest livestock pasture.
Carbon County, Wyoming. Mid-July.
58. Roadside and road sign information- Wyoming highway signs along US Highway 20 that explained the Owl Creek Mountains and Wind River Canyon primarily from a geologic perspective. This route wound its way through Wind River Canyon and afforded an opportunity to capture a few images of a unique range shrubland that was subsequently shared with this professor's students.
The general habitat, ecosystem or, probably most accurately, landscape of this land form was recognized as Wyoming Basin Cliff and Canyon (Montana Field guide, online) and Inter-Mountain Basins Cliff and Canyon (NatureServe Exoplorer, online).
Viewers cannot know the joy of viewing some of God's most rugged country as did the author, but this photographer shared what he could.
59. Cliffs along the canyon- General view of an example of the Wyoming Basin Cliff and Canyon natural community in Wind River Canyon in the Wyoming Basin. Our emphasis here was not the scant, sparse, almost nonexistent vegetation of the cliff walls, but rather the only less scant and sparse range plant community below. This boulder slope supported a simple shrubland of Utah juniper (Juniperus ostersperma= J. utahensis) and skunkbush sumac (Rhus aromatica= R. trolobata) or, more specifically a shrub-grass savanna with these two co-dominant woody species plus western wheatgrass (Agropyron smithii) as dominant herbaceous species and with bluebunch wheatgrass (A. spicatum) as associate species, except where local disturbance had resulted in inasion by the eurasian annual, cheatgrass or downy brome (Bromus tectorum). The major forbs were the two native, perennial composites, arrowleaf balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagittata) and Flodman's thistle (Cirsium flodmanii).
Along the cliff base there were springs. Along the riparian zone of these small streams there was a wet shrubland or scrub wetland composed primarily of red-ozier dogwood (Cornus stolonifer) and white (or western) virgin's bower or western clematis (Clematis ligusticifolia). At the terminus of these springs and just below the shrub wetland there were tiny deltas on which minute wetlands, minature marshs, dominated by common reed (Phragmites communis= P. australis) had developed.
Wind River Canyon. Hot Springs County, Wyoming. Late June. FRES No. 35 (Pinyon-Juniper Shrubland Ecosystem), K-21 (Juniper-Pinyon Woodland). SAF 239 (Pinyon-Juniper), shrub variant. SRM 504 ((Juniper-pinyon Pine Woodland). Pinyon -Juniper Series 122.71, Great Basin Conifer Woodland 122.7 of Cold Temperate Forest and Woodland 122 (Brown et al., 1998, p. 38). Wyoming Basin- Foothill Shrublands and Low Mountains, Ecoregion 18d (Chapman et al., 2004).
60. Two communities in one crevice - A woodland or shrubland (depending on one's interpretation as to tree versus shrub; and actually a savanna) co-dominted by Utah juniper and skunkbush sumac with a western wheatgrass-bluebunch wheatgrass understorey higher up (background vegetation) and a shrub wetland, essentially riparian vegetation dominated by red-ozier dogwood with white (or western) virgin's bower or western clematis as the associate to dogwood, (foreground vegetation) that developed on a bench or behada below two peaks of cliffs and along a small spring-fed stream oozing out of the cliffs (Tthe juniper-skunkbush woodland or shrubland was covered at end of this short section while the red-ozier dogwood-western virgin's bower riparian scrub was treated immediately below.)
At the delta of this small stream (contiguous with and immediately below the red-ozier dogwood zone) there was a common reed (Phragmites communis= P. australis)-dominated marsh. Again, the dogwood-western clematis riparian scrub and the common reed marsh were featured in the next slides-caption set. All this range vegetation was in Wind River Canyon in the Wyoming Basin.
Wind River Canyon. Hot Springs County, Wyoming. Late June. For the Utah juniper-skunkbush sumac-wheatgrass savanna: FRES No. 35 (Pinyon-Juniper Shrubland Ecosystem), K-21 (Juniper-Pinyon Woodland). SAF 239 (Pinyon-Juniper), shrub variant. SRM 504 ((Juniper-pinyon Pine Woodland). Pinyon -Juniper Series 122.71, Great Basin Conifer Woodland 122.7 of Cold Temperate Forest and Woodland 122 (Brown et al., 1998, p. 38). For the red-ozier dogwood-dominated riparian vegetation: No FRES, Kuchler unit, or SRM or SAF cover type. Willow-Dogwood Series 232.51, Rocky Mountain Swamp and Riparian Scrub 232.5 of Cold Temperate Swamp and Riparian Scrub 232 (Brown et al., 1998, p. 38). Wyoming Basin- Foothill Shrublands and Low Mountains, Ecoregion 18d (Chapman et al., 2004).
61. Ecological miracle in the canyon- Two conterminous wetland range plant communities that developed on a small, spring-fed stream emanating from cliffs in Wind River Canyon in the Wyoming Basin. The upper, darker-green band of vegetation was basically a colony of the stoloniferous, thicket-forming red-ozier dogwood that grew--almost exclusively--in the riparian zone. There was also some cover of white (or western) virgin's bower in with the red-ozier dogwood. Farther back from this streamside thicket of red-ozier dogwood and western clematis, Utah juniper, skunkbush sumac, western wheatgrass, and bluebunch wheatgrass formed a shrub-grass savanna. (This scrubland or, more accurately, shrub-grass savanna was introduced above and covered in greater detail in the immediately following two-slide-caption unit.)
The local (microsite) common reed-dominated marsh had broadleaf cattail (Typha latifolia) and smooth scouring rush (Equisetum laevigatum) as associates to common reed. Immediately beyond the reed-cattail-scouring rush marsh (yet still in moist soil) there was a zone of two, naturalized, Eurasian, perennial grasses, Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis) and orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata). These two cool-season (festucoid), agronomic grasses attested to the mesic zone just beyond the hydric (wet) zone of the marsh.
It was explained variously throughout the Grassland chapter entitled , Meadows and Related Marshes that marshes dominated by common reed are some of the most widely dispersed natural, herbaceous wetlands on Earth. In the older literature these graminoid wetlands were often--and incorrectely--called "reed swamps". Such common reed marshes were interpreted as a seral stage along a hydrosere or, perhaps, as subclimax or, even a lower seral stage, serclimax in the Clementsian monoclimax theory (Clements, 1936, p. 264; Weaver and Clements, 1938, ps. 62-63, 81) and as a hydric, edaphic climax in the Tansian polyclimax theory (Tansley, 1926, p. 31, 33, 34, 36, 59-60).
While of wide distribution around the planet, reed marshes--with notable exceptions of vast marshes in the Mediterranean Region--are typically of small size. This does not in any way negate their importance as refugia for both plant and animal species nor minimize their miraculous occurrence in the most unexpected locations and forms of terrain. Reed marshes are literally oases in regional climates that are substantially drier than the hydric habitat of marshes.
The larger, taller amber-colored stalks were last year's shoots of common reed. The color distinction between these dead stalks and current year's live shoots was obviously more pronounced in the second and third of these three slides which were taken from more of a sideview. By contrast, the first slide was taken from more of a topdown view and at an oblique angle. From that vantage perspective the green of living shoots "outshone" the amber of dead shoots.
Wind River Canyon. Hot Springs County, Wyoming. Late June. For the red-ozier dogwood-dominated riparian vegetation: No FRES, Kuchler unit, or SRM or SAF cover type. Willow-Dogwood Series 232.51, Rocky Mountain Swamp and Riparian Scrub 232.5 of Cold Temperate Swamp and Riparian Scrub 232 (Brown et al., 1998, p. 38). For the common reed-dominated marsh: No FRES, Kuchler unit, or SRM or SAF cover type. In Brown et al. (1998, p. 45) this natural plant community should be a Giant Reed Series, say, 242.83 (that Brown et al. ][998, p. 39] gave for Tropical-Subtropical Marshland and did not give for this unit), in Rocky Mountain Montane Marshland 242. 8 in cold Temperate Marshland 242. Wyoming Basin- Foothill Shrublands and Low Mountains, Ecoregion 18d (Chapman et al., 2004).
Location note: Remarkably this tiny (very localized) common reed (Phragmites communis= P. australis) marsh had formed at a seep or terminus of a mountain spring within a few yards of red-ozier dogwood (Cornus stolonifer). Both of these microhabitats were interpreted as part of the overall Utah juniper-skunkbush sumac shrubland covered here. Thus they were included both here and in the Grassland chapter, entitled. Meadows and Miscellaneous Marshes.
62. Canyon scrub savanna- Range vegetation co-dominated by Utah juniper and skunkbush sumac, as an upper woody (shrub in this case) layer, and by western wheatgrass and bluebunch wheatgrass (in absence of abnormal disturbance) that formed an herbaceous layer. In the locally degraded area shown here the amber straw was mature cheatgrass or downy brome (Bromus tectorum), a naturalized, Eurasian, annual weed that was the local dominat. The dominant forb was Flodman's thistle (Cirsium flodmanii), a native, perennial composite that usually increases with disturbances such as overgrazing or ancillary damage from highway construction. Another composite present in notable cover was arrowleaf balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagittata) such as the plant in center foreground immediately behind Flodman's thistle.
Western wheatgrass and bluebunch wheatgrass--the potential, climax herbaceous co-dominants of this range site were present, but locally "overpowered" by the earlier-maturing, annual cheatgrass. This was an example of the phenomenon of seasonal societies even within climax vegetation and consequent seasonal dominance. Six weeks to two months later (after these slides were taken) western wheatgrass and bluebunch wheatgrass would overwhelm the dead shoots of cheatgrass. That would be then, this was the here and now.
Wind River Canyon. Hot Springs County, Wyoming. Late June. Utah juniper-skunkbush sumac-wheatgrass savanna was best described as FRES No. 35 (Pinyon-Juniper Shrubland Ecosystem), K-21 (Juniper-Pinyon Woodland). SAF 239 (Pinyon-Juniper), shrub variant. SRM 504 ((Juniper-pinyon Pine Woodland). Pinyon -Juniper Series 122.71, Great Basin Conifer Woodland 122.7 of Cold Temperate Forest and Woodland 122 (Brown et al., 1998, p. 38). (Chapman et al., 2004).
63. Flodded in a canyon- Local, small colony of Flodman's thistle (Cirsium flodmanii), a native perennial composite, growing on a Utah muniper-skunkbush sumac-wheatgrass savanna at base of hills in Wind River Canyon. The amber-colored herbage immediately behind this clump of Flodman's thistle was the naturalized, Eurasian, annual grass, cheatgrass or downy brome. The green patch behind the cheatgrass was western wheatgrass, the dominant herbaceous species of this range plant community.
These same shoots were visible in the foreground of the immediately preceding slide in the above slide-caption set.
Wind River Canyon. Hot Springs County, Wyoming. Late June; full-bloom phenological stage.
64. Looking down on Flodman's thistle- a topdown perspective of several capitula or heads (first slide) and a closer-up view of two blooming heads and one seeded-out head (second slide) of Flodman's thistle growing with cheatgrass, western wheatgrass, and bluebunch wheatgrass as major herbaceous species in a Utah juniper-skunkbush sumac-midgrass savanna in the Wind River Canyon in the Wyoming Basin.
Flodman's thistle has a species range extending from Manitoba west to Briotish Columbia and then south Arizona and eastward to Iowa (Great Plains Flora Association, 1986, p. 911). Flodman's thistle is a rhizomatous perennial that is capable of vegetative as well as sexual reproduction. it is not a major problem weed, however, like the rhizomatous canada thistle (C. arvense). Successional status of Flodman's thistle is a matter of debate or inconsistency in response to disturbance. beebe and Hoffman (1968) and Umbanhowar (1989) reported that Flodman's thistle increased with increasing stocking rate of beef cattle.The rosette-forming, rhizomatous Flodman's thistle colonized best on bare soil and, in general, on areas of disturbance. Umbanhowar (1989) suspected that this preference for bare of severely disturbed areas was due to shading or limited light conditions as Flodman's thistle appears to require sunlite condistions or, conversely, is susceptible to mortality under limited light.
Palatability of Flodman's thistle was not known, but increased cover of this native perennial with moderate to heavy cattle grazing strongly suggested that it is of low palatablity to bovines, although this increase may be due to improved light conditions rather than avoidance by cattle. Wilson and McCarty (1984) described development of Flodman's thistle including germination through rosette formation.
Wind River Canyon. Hot Springs County, Wyoming. Late June; full-bloom phenological stage.
65. Bowers in the canyon- Single plant of white (or western) virgin's bower or western clematis (Clematis ligusticifolia) on high upper bank of Wind River in its deep canyon. Although some Clematis species are forbs C. ligusticifolia is an "in between-species" being an herbaceous or semi-woody vine though not a true liana or woody vine. Some of its "prime habitat" is moister environments near or in proximity of streams. Western clematis is a dioecious species. The plant seen here was a female (see next two slides below).
Hot Springs County, Wyoming. Late June; early bloom stage.
66. Windy virgins from the river- Inflorescence (first slide) and two individual flowers (second or lower slide) of white virgin's bower in Wind River Canyon. Clematis flowers are unisexual; C. ligusticifolia is doecious with pistillate flowers having sterile stamens (lacking anthers) according to the Great Plains Flora Association (1986, p. 91). These were female flowers: note absence of anthers on prominent filaments).
Hot Springs County, Wyoming. Late June; early bloom stage.
Another Wyoming Basin canyon; another suite of range plant communities- A drainage (ephemeral tributary) of the Price River in southcentral Wyoming supported range communities ranging from open understorey Douglas-fir/ponderosa pine forest (more like woodland) down through bluebunch wheatgrass-Indian ricegrass-mountain big sagebrush steppe to a botanically diverse, steep mountain slope/drainage shrubland of Rocky Mountain maple (Acer glabrum), Mexican elderberry or blueberry elder (Sambucus caerulea), curl-leaf mountain mahogany (Cercocarpus ledifolius), skunkbush sumac (Rhus trilobata= R. aromatica), Gambel's oak (Quercus gambelii), and wax or squaw current (Ribes cereum) with a few plants of bluebunch wheatgrass and cheatgrass or downy brome. Quite a vegetational transect!
Carbon County,Wyoming. Late July, estival aspect. FRES34 (Chaparral-Mountain Scrub Shrubland Ecosystem). K-31 (Mountain Mahogany-Oak Scrub). SRM (Variant of Mountain Brush Types, no number). Mixed Deciduous Series 132.16, Great Basin Montane Scrub 132.1 of Cold Temperate Scrubland (Brown et al., 1998, p. 39). Wyoming Basin Foothill Shrublands and Low Mountains ecoregion 18d (Chapman et al., 2004).
Wyoming Basin mountain scrubland- A species-rich shrubland had developed along an ephemeral stream draining into Price River in southcentral Wyoming. Major shrub species included Rocky Mountain maple, Mexican elderberry or blueberry elder, curl-leaf mountain mahogany, skunkbush sumac, Gambel's oak, and wax or squaw current. A sparse or fragmentary herbaceous layer was formed by widely scattered plants of bluebunch wheatgrass and downy brome, broncograss, or cheatgrass.
Carbon County,Wyoming. Late July, estival aspect. FRES34 (Chaparral-Mountain Scrub Shrubland Ecosystem). K-31 (Mountain Mahogany-Oak Scrub). SRM (Variant of Mountain Brush Types, no number). Mixed Deciduous Series 132.16, Great Basin Montane Scrub 132.1 of Cold Temperate Scrubland (Brown et al., 1998, p. 39). Wyoming Basin Foothill Shrublands and Low Mountains ecoregion 18d (Chapman et al., 2004).
Closer look at canyon scrub- Along edges of an ephemeral stream draining into Price River a local shrubland community had developed. In the photograph seen here Rocky Mountain maple, Gambel's oak, and mountain big sagebrush were the predominant shrubs. Mexican elderberry or blueberry elder and wax or squaw current were species with lesser canopy cover.
Carbon County,Wyoming. Late July, estival aspect. FRES34 (Chaparral-Mountain Scrub Shrubland Ecosystem). K-31 (Mountain Mahogany-Oak Scrub). SRM (Variant of Mountain Brush Types, no number). Mixed Deciduous Series 132.16, Great Basin Montane Scrub 132.1 of Cold Temperate Scrubland (Brown et al., 1998, p. 39). Wyoming Basin Foothill Shrublands and Low Mountains ecoregion 18d (Chapman et al., 2004).
Rocky Mountain maple (Acer glabrum)- A sprawling shrub (first slide) and leaders (second slide) of Rocky mountain maple growing in a steep canyon immediately above Price River. Plants of Rocky Mountain maple were locally dominant in the canyon scrub community that had developed in the more mesic (and otherwise harsh) habitat of this mountain drainage with its ephemeral stream.
Carbon County,Wyoming. Late July, estival aspect.
Rocky Mountain maple- Details of leaders and leaves of Rocky Mountain maple growing along the edge of an ephemeral stream in a canyon draining directly into Price River.
Carbon County,Wyoming. Late July
Blue or Mexican elderberry or blueberry elder (Sambucus caerulea)- One of several comparatively large plants of blue elderberry that grew in a canyon with an ephemeral stream that was immediately above Price River in southcentral Wyoming.
Carbon County,Wyoming. Late July; ripe-fruit stage of phenology.
Elder views- Outer portions of leaders (branches or limbs) and leaves and fruit bunches (first and second slide, respectively) of Mexican or blue elderberry (also, known as blueberry elder) growing at the mouth of a canyon that drained directly into Price River.
Good--though brief--treatments of blue elderberry include the timeless Range Plant Handbook (Forest Service, 1940, B143) and the recent field guide by Van Buren et al. (2011, p. 125).
Carbon County,Wyoming. Late July; ripe-fruit phenological stage.
Another current component- Leaves and fruit of wax or squaw current (Ribes cereum) growing in a steep canyon directly above and draining into the Price River in southcentral Wyoming. The Ribes genus has traditionally been divided into :1) the gooseberries (Grossularia subgenus) members of which have sharp pointed spines at nodes and bear fruit that does not disarticulate from pedicels and 2) the currents (Ribesia subgenus) whose members lack spines and have fruit that disarticulates from pedicels (Smith, 1977, p. 145). Take it from an ole gooseberry picker, currents are much less painful to pick and, more importantly, much faster to put into pies and jams as the fruit does have to be snipped.
Carbon County,Wyoming. Late July; ripe-fruit stage of phenology.
A widespread scrub aok- Portion of a leader of Gambel's oak (Quercus gambelii) growing in a canyon draining into Price River in the greater Wyoming Basin. Leaves and immature acorns were featured in this slide. Gambel's oak is remarkable for its size and habit which varies from immense trees to sprawling, space-occupying shrubs, the genotypic versus phenotypic variation of which is not readily understood. Gambel oak plants garowing in this canyon where all shrubs of medium heigt (mostly less than eight feet in height).
Carbon County,Wyoming. Late July. Immature fruit phenological stage.
One of the taller shrub species-Fairly large plant (first slide) and closer-in view of it's crown (ssecond slide) of curl-leaf mountain-mahogany (Cercocarpus ledifolius) growing in a canyon that drained into the Price River.
Fine discussion of curl-leaf mountain-mahogany as a valuable browse plant was that of the Range Plant Handbook by the U.S. Forest Service (1940, B50). Van Buren (2011, p. 383) stated that this secies of Cercocarpus does not resprout and, hence, is readily killed by fire (and, it would follow, by overbrowsing). Fire making a run up this canyon would be the deathknell for plants of curl-leaf mountain-mahogany with regeneration being dependetnt solely on establishmeent of seedlings. Thus maintanance of this valuable browse plant would have to allow for sexual reproduction and fruit production.
Carbon County,Wyoming. Late July.
Nice specimen- A large, robust plant of mountain big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata subsp. vaseyana) in the foothills typical of much of the Intermountain Region. For treatment of the various subspecies of A. tridentata students were referred to the timeless classic of Beetle (1960) as well as more recent treatments by Welch et al. (1987, 167-168), Wambolt, Frisina (2002, ps. 32-41), and Van Buren et al. (2011, ps. 171-173).
As a rule of thumb (and ancedotal observations), plants of mountain big sagebrush are intermediate in size (height, crown canopy, trunk diameter, etc.) between basin big sagebrush (A. tridentata subsp. tridentata) and the smaller Wyoming big sagebrush (A. tridentata subsp. wyomingensis). This is reflective of the more (or less) favorable environmental factors, including soil moisture, climate, as well as genetic-based ecotypic variation. Welch et al. (1987, p. 168) explained that most speccimens assaiged to A. tridentata sub. vaseyana were actually closer to plant material of few-flower sagebrush (A. tridentata subs. or var. pauciflora). All A. tridentata subspecies (or, according to some authorities, varieties) intergrade, especially where there are ecotonal habitats and individuals of more than one taxon of A. tridentata present.
Summit County, Utah. Wasatch and Uinta Mountains- Semiarid Foothills ecoregion 19f (Woods et al., 2001).
Leaders of mountain big sagerush- Secondary (and vertically oriented) branches off of main limb of mountain big sagerush (first slide) and unit of secondary, vertical branches (second slide).
Summit County, Utah.
Long, limber limbs- Leaders of mountain big sagebrush that were produced in the foothills of Wasatch Mountains.
Summit County, Utah.
Orange on old- Orange foliose lichen (Xantharia parietina) growing on bark of a large trunk of an ancient specimen of mountain big sagebeush (first slide) and close-up view of the orange foliose lichen on bark of a major limb of the same ancient mountain big sagebrush (second slide).
Summit County, Utah.
Orange on old up closer- More detailed views of orange foliose lichen garowing of the bark of the ancient specimen of mountain big sagebrush presented in the immediately preceding two-slide set.
Summit County, Utah. Wyoming Basin Foothill Shrublands and Low Mountains ecoregion 18d (Chapman et al., 2004).
The Colorado Plateau is one of the larger--and, though dramatic, perhaps less variable-- physiographic provinces in western North America. The Colorado Plauteu is unquestionably one of the more picturesque or photogenic of western physiographic regions. After all there is Kodachrome Basin State Park (in Utah), several National Parks devoted to canyonlands, and, of course, the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River. This is a geologist and rock hound (as well as backpacker and photographer) heaven on Earth.
The still definitive treatment of the Colorado Plateau physiographic province is in the classic Physiography of the Western United States (Fenneman, 1931, ps. 274-325). More recent treatments of the Colorado Plateau, including its geologic history, include Baar (2000), van Riper and Cole (2004), and Fillmor (2011). Also of useful (though very brief) treatment is that of Orme (2002, ps. 381-389).
The Colorado Plateau--and it is often specified in the plural as Colorado Plateaus--lays immediately to the west of the Southern Rocky Mountains and to the north and east of the Basin and Range (including the Great Basin) physiographic provinces. Perhaps as much, if not more imortant, from standpoint of range plant species--both woody and herbaceous--is location of the Colorado Plateau close to the Great Plains province the Southern Rocky Mountains seperate the two).
An interesting introduction to natural history of the Clorado Plateau was found to be that of Harper et al. (1994).
67. Canyonlands extraire- Fenneman (1931, p. 274) stated that "[t]he first distinguishing feature [of the Colorado Plateau physiographic province] is approximate horizontality of its rocks". The second distinguising feature is high elevation while still another distinguishing geologic characteristic is "... remarkable canyons, not one but hundreds" (Fenneman, 1931, p. 274).
These two images are of the Moab anticline.
The first of these two slides introduced the Colorado Piedomnt range types by portraying the horizontality of the Entrada Sandstone of this area. Entrada Sandstone is part of the San Rafael formation which the National Park Service estimated was deposited in the mid to late Jurassic Period (144 to 208 million years before present) of the Mesozoic Era.
Geologic time is mind-boggling. By the way, thisregion (most of the Colorado Plateau) is known as Red Rock Country due to coloration of the sandstone such as seen here. Utaah's famed Red Rock Country includes five National Parks: Zion, Bryce Canyon, Arches, Canyonlands, and Capitol Reef. This area, including these National Parks, have some of Earth's largest and most diverse assortment of such geological wonders as miles of ccolorful canyons, buttes, reefs, natural rock arches and bridgess, hoodoos, domes, and pinnacles formed from the sculpting forces of geologic erosion.
The second slide introduced the range scrub and woodland vegetation of the Colorado Plateau. Range plant species in this "potographic transect" included Gambel's oak (Quercus gambelii), utah juniper (Juniperus osteosperma= J. utahensis), and blackbrush (Coleogyne ramosissima).
The range vegetation shown here is an ecotone between the blackbrush shrubland range type (SRM 212) and the pinyon pine-juniper woodland range type (SRM 412).
Arches National Park, Grand County, Utah. Late July estival aspect.
68. A unique sentinel- One of the few species of hardwood (angiosperm) tree species in the canyonlands--othr than in stream bottomland forests--is the unique singleleaf ash (Fraxinus anomala var anomala), two specimens of which were growing in shelfs with shallow soil in Entrada Sandstone on the Moab anticline/fault. This was a Shallow Sand Rock Pocket range site (Natural Resources Cnservation Service, 2011).
Singleleaf or oneleaf ash gets its common name and the specific epithet anomala from the distinctive characteristic of having its leaf reduced (at least typically) to one leaflet. Fraxinus species, have compound leaves comprised of several leaflets. Not so, F. anomala. Singleleaf ash can grow to a small tree (Sargent, 1933, p. 837), but when growing in crevices of Colorado Piedmont sandstone it is more commonly of shrub-size (though often with a single bole).
Range plant species associated with the two example singleleaf ash shown here included Gambel's oak, blackbrush, and Utah juniper.
Arches National Park, Grand County, Utah. Late July; fruit-ripening stage of phenology.
69. A unique one in a unique place- Leaders of oneleaf ash showing one leaflet-leaves and ripening samaras. These examples were growing on one of the specimens preseented in the preceding slides.
Arches National Park, Grand County, Utah. Late July; near-ripe-fruit stage of phenology.
70. About as sparse a range as it gets- Crevices and ledges in Entrada Sandstone on the Moab fault vegetated (barely) with Torrey's Mormon tea (Ephedra torreyana), orb dry rock moss (Grimmia orbicularis), and various lichens. hus this local assemblage of range plants consisted of a gymnosperm, a bryophyte, and cryptogams. The moss and lichens were in desiccated conditions (basically in drought dormancy)
The unusual and distinctive range plant communities on this sandstonde parent material were in an eotone between a blackbrush scrub and a pinyon pine-Utah juniper woodland (more like a savannah).
Arches National Park, Grand County, Utah. Late July. Shallow Sand Rock Pocket range site (Natural Resources Cnservation Service, 2011).
71. About as dry as the rocks it grew on- Orb dry rock moss (Grimmia orbicularis) in an advanced state of dehydration or desiccation (which ever or, if appropriate, both) growing on Entrada Sandstone that was part of the Moab fault . The first slide presdented a colony or population of this moss in its linear configuration while the second slide was a "nested sub-photoplot" of the lower part of the colony. (Can you see the exact portion shown at closer camera-distance?).
The bryophytes (nd even more so the cryptogams) can withstand extreme water loss and ranges in temperature. No, it was not likely that vertebrate range animals would feed on this moss, but the bryophyte had a role in transforming the sandstone parent matieral into the poorly developed desertic soil of this geoloigic wonderland.
Arches National Park, Grand County, Utah. Late July. Shallow Sand Rock Pocket range site (Natural Resources Cnservation Service, 2011).
72. Mixed shrub bowl- Broad expanse of deset scrub in the Canyon Lands section of the Colorado Plateau physiographic. Landscape-scale views of this shrub-dominated range plant community were presented fron two slightly different camera-angles (use the darker-colored clump of shrubs in right background as a landmark). Shrub species in this diverse scrub vegetation indlucded sand sagebrush (Artemisia filifolia), blackbrush, green Mormon tea (Ephedra viridis), Mexican cliffrose (Cowania mexicana= Purshia mexicana), green or, sometimes, yellow rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus viscidiflorus), Spanish bayonet (Yucca harrimaniae), and scattered Utah juniper (some of the latter were or tree size and morphology). The main--though sparse in cover--herbaceous species was Indian ricegrass (Oryzopsis hymenoides).
This range vegettion was cleaarly of mixed species, but this diverse, species-rich shrub comunity had to be regarded as a variant of the blackbrush range cover type.
Arches National Park, Grand County, Utah. Late July, estival aspect.
FRES No. 30 (Desert Shrub Shrubland Ecosystem), K-33 (Blackbrush). SRM 212 (Blackbush),
mixed shrub variant form thereof. Blackbrush Series 152.13, Great Basin Desertscrub
152.1 of Cold Temperate Desertland 152 (Brown et al., 1998, p. 40). Colorado
Plateaus- Semiarid Benchlands and Canyonlands ecoregion 20c (Woods et al., 2001).
73. Black horizons- Four landscape-scale views of blackbrush scrub; textbook examples of this rangeland cover type that was designated and described as Blackbush [sic] 212 by the Society for Range Management (Shiflet, 1994). Unlike the species-rich, mixed shrub community presented in the immediately preceding two-slide/caption unit, range vegetation seen in these four slides was a consociation of blackbrush. There were a few small trees or large shrubs of Utah juniper and some widely scattered plants of Indian ricegrass, but otherwise these four views were of blackbrush populations (ie. single-species stands of blackbrush) that, at the plant species level, were the ecological counterpart of agronomic monocultures like corn or cotton fields.
Other range plant species present--and all at very low cover and density relative to blackbrush--included Utah juniper, pinyon pine, Indian ricegrass, galleta (Hilaria jamesii), cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) at much loer cover and density than the native perennial grasses, and, at really "low levels", Mexican cliffrose (Cowania mexicana).
If a range animal did not care for blackbrush browse, the critter was out of luck on the shrubland range presented here. Henry Ford explained that his customers could have a Model T Ford in any color they wanted--as long as they wanted black. On blackbrush ranges (Blackbrush SRM 212 rangeland cover type) range brutes can have any browse plant they want--as long as they want blackbrush.
On the matter of palatability of blackbrush, it seems that this member of the rose family "... is considered of little importane as broswe for domestic animals" and is eatern "by deer in winter" (Welsh et al, 1993, p. 591). Sampson and Jespersen (1963, ps. 86-87) reported blackbrush as "...a moderately important winter deer and goat browse", a conclusion consistent with Welsh et al. (1993, p. 591), and as being "cropped to a considerable extent during winter and early spring months by sheep and goats", a view inconsistent (in fact in contrast) with Welsh et al. (1993, p. 591). Finally, Sampson and Jespersen (1963, ps. 86-87) concluded that on range where blackbrush makes up a substantial portion of plant cover blackbrush "... provies a fairly large part of the feed ingested by sheep, goats, and deer ...". Stubbendieck et al. (1992, p. 409) gave the forage value of blackbrush as "fair for cattle, sheep, goats, and deer during the winter" yet persisting under overgrazing due to protectiive spines on blackbrush branches.
Such discussion proves a fundamental principal of Range Animal Nutrition: animals will eat what is there --or starve. Blackbrush is the climax; and probably provides the optimum in range broswe. Manage for what is there. Fourth Cardinal Principal of Range Management: Proper Kind and Class of Range Animal. Blackbrush shrubland "ain't" cattle range. Black Angus (or any other color of cow brute) and blackbrush "ain't' made for each other.
This range vegetation was on some of the better developed soils of the Canyon Lands section of the Colorado Plateau.
The landmark sandstone rock in right background of the first slide was Courthouse rock.
Arches National Park, Grand County, Utah. Late July, estival aspect.
FRES No. 30 (Desert Shrub Shrubland Ecosystem), K-33 (Blackbrush). SRM 212 (Blackbush),
mixed shrub variant form thereof. Blackbrush Series 152.13, Great Basin Desertscrub
152.1 of Cold Temperate Desertland 152 (Brown et al., 1998, p. 40). Colorado
Plateaus- Semiarid Benchlands and Canyonlands ecoregion 20c (Woods et al., 2001).
74. Shrubland X Grassland hybrid- Transition between Indian ricegrass- spike dropseed (Sporobolus contractus) semidesert grassland and blackbrush-dominated shrubland in southeast Utah within the Canyon Lands section of the Colorado Plateau. In addition to these three "tri-dominants", other range plant species growing on this vegetational ecotone included Utah juniper, This range vegetation was a textbook example of a grass-shrub savanna: physiogonomy, structure, composition, and presence or existence as a transition zone or ecotone between grassland and shrubland.
These three views--from top to bottom--presented blackbrush, the dominant shrub, at decreasing cover and density and Indian ricegrass, the dominant grass, at increasing cover and density. Other plant species included Utah juniper, pinyon pine, rubber rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus nauseosus), four-wing saltbush (Atripex canescens), desert needlegrass (Stipa speciosa), green Mormon tea, Spanish bayonet, and oneleaf or singleleaf ash.
The second and, especially, third slide showed the better developed Indian ricegrass-blackbrush savanna which could be interpreted as either 1) semidesert grassland-blackbrush (and other shrubs as minor players) savanna or 2) blackbrush shrubland-Indian ricegrass savanna.
With this large a component of range plant biomass beeing in grass, this ecotonal range was far more feasible for cattle range than the "nearly pure" stands of blackbrush of the blackbrush rangeland cover type (SRM 212) presented in the immediately preceding four-slide/caption set.
The weathered columns of sandstone such as those in the right distant background of the first slide are called hoodoos.
Arches National Park, Grand County, Utah. Late July, estival aspect.
FRES No. 30 (Desert Shrub Shrubland Ecosystem), K-33 (Blackbrush). SRM 212 (Blackbush),
mixed shrub variant form thereof. Blackbrush Series 152.13, Great Basin Desertscrub
152.1 of Cold Temperate Desertland 152 (Brown et al., 1998, p. 40). OR (especially
third slide) FRES 40 (Desert Grasslands Ecsystem). K- there is none. SRM 502
(Grama-Galleta), Indian ricegrass variant. Ricegrass Series 142.23 , Great Basin
Shrub-Grassland142.2 of Cold Temperate Grassland 142 (Brown et al., 1998, p.
40). Colorado Plateaus- Semiarid Benchlands and Canyonlands ecoregion 20c (Woods
et al., 2001).
75. Plants and pinnacles- Pinnacles (also called spires) stand like God's own sentinels beside a local patchwork of blackbrush shrubland (first or upper slide), Indian ricegrass-dominated semidesert grassland (second or lower slide), and savannahs between these range cover types in Utah's Red Rock Country portion of the Colordo Plateau . At base of the pinnacles were small trees (or shrubs) of Utah juniper and pinyon pine. Other--and mostly minor--range plants present in this vegetational mosaic included desert needlegrass, four-wing saltbush, Mexican cliffrose, and desert or tulip pricklypear (Opuntia phaeacantha). Thus this aridlands range vegetation included plant species more typical of the Great Plains grasslands alongside those of deserts, pinyon pine-juniper woodlands and, even lower-elevation coniferous forests (eg. mexican cliffrose).
Pinnacles differ from hoodoos in having more of a tapered shape, including arising from a broad base. Hoodoos are typically shaped like totem poles (usually because their upper portions are composed of harder, more erosion-resistant rock) whereas spires or pinnacles are proportionately more pointed at their tops having something of a spear point-shape.
Arches National Park, Grand County, Utah. Late July, estival aspect.
FRES No. 30 (Desert Shrub Shrubland Ecosystem), K-33 (Blackbrush). SRM 212 (Blackbush),
mixed shrub variant form thereof. Blackbrush Series 152.13, Great Basin Desertscrub
152.1 of Cold Temperate Desertland 152 (Brown et al., 1998, p. 40). OR (especially
third slide) FRES 40 (Desert Grasslands Ecsystem). K- there is none. SRM 502
(Grama-Galleta), Indian ricegrass variant. Ricegrass Series 142.23 , Great Basin
Shrub-Grassland142.2 of Cold Temperate Grassland 142 (Brown et al., 1998, p.
40). Colorado Plateaus- Semiarid Benchlands and Canyonlands ecoregion 20c (Woods
et al., 2001).
76. Black on orange sand- Small (left) and mid-size (right) plants of blackbrush (Coleogyne ramosissima) growing on the sandy soil of an area of gently sloping land between ridges of sandstone in the Canyon Lands section of the Colorado Plateau. Blackbrush, a member of the rose family (Prunoideae, the plum, peach, or cherry subfamily) and a monotypic genus (genus of only one species), forms consociations (almost single-species stands like a natural "monoculture") in both the Colorado Plateau and the adjoining Basin and Range physiographic province. This blackbrush-dominated range vegetation was regarded as the "blackbrush formation" by Dayton (1931, p. 55) and the "blackbrush association" by the U.S. Forest Service (1940, p. B61).
Blackbrush is a member species of the Colorado Desert portion of the Sonoran Desert (Shreve and Wiggins,1964, ps. 582-583), the Mojave Desert in the Great Basin (McMinn, 1939, p. 187), and the "soft chaparral" of the Rocky Mountain foothills scrublands (Clements, 1920, ps. 181-186).
Blackbrush is on the 200 species list of the International Range Plant Identification Contest (Stubbendieck et al. 1992, ps. 408-409) sponsored by the Society Range Management. Though blackbrush has a restricted biological (species) range it is an important North American range plant.
Arches National Park, Grand County, Utah. Late July, early to mid-maturity fruit stages of phenological development.
77. Not-quite-black- Top-down view of parts of three crowns of blackbrush (first slide) and side-view of another and larger plant of blackbrush (second slide) growing on a local plain of sandy soil in the Canyon Lands section of the Colorado Plateau physiographic province. The local area was southeast Utah where sandstone, especially Entrada Sandstone, was the predominant parent material of these range soils.
Standard references for this shrub include (McMinn, 1939, p. 187), Dayton (1931, p. 55), the old standby Range Plant Handbook (Forest Service, 1940, p. B61), Sampson and Jespersen (1963. ps. 86-87), Welsh et al. (1993, p. 591), Van Buren et al. (2011, p. 385), and Carter (2012, p. 110).
Blackbrush is a member of the Rosaceae (rose family) with a relatively small species range, but where it does grow it develops into a consociation with comparatively few other species associated with it. Such "nearly pure" or single-species stands (primarily range plant communities existing as populations of blackbrush) constitute the Blackbrush rangeland cover type (SRM 212) described in Shiflet (1994). SRM 212 is found in the arid zone (= desert climate) as a member species of parts of the Sonoran, Mojave, and Great Basin Deserts. (Clements (1920, ps. 181-186) also described blackbrush as a member of the Rocky Mountain or petran chaparral (the "soft chaparral") noting that it is the most xeric of all shrubs in this foothill scrubland.
Arches National Park, Grand County, Utah. Late July, early to mid-maturity fruit stages of phenological development.
78. Black branches- One long leader and several shorter-length shoots of blackbrush growing on a local sandy plain in the canyonlands of the Colorado Plateau in southeast Utah. Blackbrush is, overall, a minor range plant in the Sonoran, Mojave, and Great Basin Deserts as well as in the Rocky Mountain or petran chaparral of the southern foothills of the Rockys, yet in certain locations throughout that vast geographic range region blackbrush is not ony the sole dominant but also nearly the only range plant species present. Such range plant communities make up the Blackbrush rangeland cover type (SRM 212 (Shiflet, 1994), several examples of which were presented above.
Given importance of blackbrush across this large portion of the Western Range, this member of the rose family was included in the 200 species included in the International Range Plant Identification Contest (Stubbendieck et al. 1992, ps. 408-409).
Arches National Park, Grand County, Utah. Late July, early to mid-maturity fruit stages of phenology.
spike dropseed (Sporobolus contractus) For treatment of spike dropseed in the Beehive State see Welsh et al. (1993, p. p. 873).
79. Colorado canyonlands at their ultimate- These spectacular sandstone arrangements in Arches National Park ae known as the Firey Furnace. They epitomised the Red Rock Country in southeast Utah's portion of the Canyon lands secction of the Colorado Plateau. Parts of three distinctive range plant communities were represented in this set of three slides: 1) blackbrush scrubland, 2) pinyon pine-Utah juniper woodland, and 3) scrub oak shrubland comprised of sand shinnery oak (Quercus havardii). Herbaceous species were limited, but Indian ricegrass and desert needlegrass were the major ones representing the non-woody range plangts on this multi-range community canyonlands vegetaation.
The tallest plants in right mid-ground of the third slide were singleleaf ash, the only angiosperm tree present (and individuals of it were small and stunted). Most of the low shrubs in the foreground of the second and third slide were sand shinnery oak. There were widely scattered plants of green Mormon tea.
Arches National Park, Grand County, Utah. Late July, estival aspect. FRES No. 30 (Desert Shrub Shrubland Ecosystem), K-33 (Blackbrush). SRM 212 (Blackbush), mixed shrub variant form thereof. Blackbrush Series 152.13, Great Basin Desertscrub 152.1 of Cold Temperate Desertland 152 (Brown et al., 1998, p. 40). OR (especially third slide) FRES 40 (Desert Grasslands Ecsystem). K- there is none. SRM 502 (Grama-Galleta), Indian ricegrass variant. Ricegrass Series 142.23 , Great Basin Shrub-Grassland142.2 of Cold Temperate Grassland 142 (Brown et al., 1998, p. 40). Local colonies of Havard's sand shinnery oak were FRES 31 (Shinnery Shrubland Ecosystem), K-64 (Shinnery). SRM 730 (Sand Shinnery Oak). Closest in (Brown et al., 1998, p. 39) was Scrub Oak Series 133.4, Chihuhuan Interior Chaparral 133.3 of Warm Temperate Scrubland 133. Colorado Plateaus- Semiarid Benchlands and Canyonlands ecoregion 20c (Woods et al., 2001).
80. Shinneried on canyonlands red sand- Portions of leaders (=branches of woody plants) of sand shinnery oak Havard's oak (Quercus havardii) on plants growing in the stand or colony of sand shinnery oak shown in the immediately preceding slide.
In the arid canyonlands of the Colorado Plateau sand shinnery oak (and, to lesser extent, Gambel's oak) occur in much smaller populations than in the sand shinnery oak range type or ecosystem in the Southern Great Plains or Staked Plains of eastern New Mexico and west Texas andwestern Oklahoma. Nonetheless, cover of sand shinnery oak in parts of the pinyon pine-juniper woodland and shinnery oak dominated shrubland in the Colordo Plateau canyonlands comprise an major component in the landscape mosaic of the range vegetation.
Standard references for sand shinnery oak from perspectives of taxonomy and morphology included Vines (1960, ps.166-167), Welsh et al. (1993, p. 344), van Buren et al. (2011, p. 315), and Carter (2012, ps. 300-301). Current definitive authority for shinnery oak on a continental scale was Flora of North American Committee (1997, p. 486).
Arches National Park, Grand County, Utah. Late July, nearly ripe fruit stage of phenology.
81. On the canyon tops- A savanna form of the pinyon pine-juniper (mostly Utah juniper) vegetational zone as shown in these two landscape-scale views blends into or eventually "tree-thickens" into the canyonlands variant of the standard pinyon pine-Utah juniper woodland (as shown in successive slide-caption sets) on tops of sandstone buttes in the Canyon Lands section of the Colorado Plateau. Tallest trees in these two views were Utah juniper while lower-growing, bushlike conifers were pinyon pines. (Spatial arrangements of these two species were presented in slide/caption sets below.)
Most of the woody plant cover was that of shrubs, especially Mexican cliffrose, with less cover of blackbrush; some sand shinnery oak; and, lesser still; singleleaf ash, green Mormon tea, and desert or tulip pricklypear (Opuntia phaeacantha). Although singleleaf or oneleaf ash can grow into a small tree, individuals of this species on this higher elevation, rock habitat were shrubs. A conspicuous example of one such shrub-form of singleleaf ash was in the immediate left corner or foreground of the first of these two slides. Most of the woody cover in foreground to mid-ground of both of these slides was that of Mexican cliffrose and blackbrush.
Arches National Park, Grand County, Utah. Late July, estival aspect. FRES No. 35 (Pinyon-Juniper Shrubland Ecosystem), K-21Juniper-Pinyon Woodland. SRM 412 (Juniper-Pinyon Woodland), mixed shrub understorey; savanna variant. Pinyon-Juniper Series 122.71, Great Basin Conifer Woodland 122.7 of Cold Temperate Forest and Woodland 122 (Brown et al., 1998, p. 38). Colorado Plateaus- Semiarid Benchlands and Canyonlands ecoregion 20c (Woods et al., 2001).
82. Trees on tops- A canyonlands variant of the pinyon pine-juniper (mostly Utah juniper) woodland develops at higher elevations of canyons in the Canyon Lands section of the Colorado Plateau. This vegetational zone is adjoining and immediately above (in elevation) the blackbrush scrubland. As such, there are range plant species present some of which are 1) common to both of these elevation-determined range plant communities and others of which are 2) restricted to the higher elevation pinyon-juniper woodland range type.
The first of these three slides presented a landscape-scale perspective of the pinyon pine-Utah juniper woodland with the blackbrush scrubland on the lower plain in the distant background.
In addition to pinyon pine and Utah juniper, other woodland woody species included green Mormon tea (another coniferous or gymnosperm species), blackbrush, and Mexican clliffrose. The dominant range plant of the sporadic or intermittant herabaceous zone was Indian ricegrass, State Grass of Utah.
Arches National Park, Grand County, Utah. Late July, estival aspect.
FRES No. 35 (Pinyon-Juniper Shrubland Ecosystem), K-21Juniper-Pinyon Woodland.
SRM 412 (Juniper-Pinyon Woodland), mixed shrub understorey; savanna variant.
Pinyon-Juniper Series 122.71, Great Basin Conifer Woodland 122.7 of Cold Temperate
Forest and Woodland 122 (Brown et al., 1998, p. 38). Colorado Plateaus- Semiarid
Benchlands and Canyonlands ecoregion 20c (Woods et al., 2001).
83. Big role; little trees- One Utah juniper (larger tree, center) flanked by two smaller pinyon pine (left and right in front of larger juniper) at upper elevation of Utah canyonlands pinyon pine-Utah juniper wodland in the Canyon Lands section of the Colorado Plateau.
Utah juniper and pinyon pine were the co-dominant trees of this canyonlands variant of the pinyon pine-Utah juniper woodland.
Arches National Park, Grand County, Utah. Late July, estival aspect. FRES No. 35 (Pinyon-Juniper Shrubland Ecosystem), K-21Juniper-Pinyon Woodland. SRM 412 (Juniper-Pinyon Woodland), mixed shrub understorey; savanna variant. Pinyon-Juniper Series 122.71, Great Basin Conifer Woodland 122.7 of Cold Temperate Forest and Woodland 122 (Brown et al., 1998, p. 38). Colorado Plateaus- Semiarid Benchlands and Canyonlands ecoregion 20c (Woods et al., 2001).
84. Pine tree or shrub? Small specimen (between seven and eight feet in height) of pinyon pine (Pinus edulis), first slide, and details of immature female cones and needles, second slide, of this little fellow that could qualify as either a tree or a shrub. This praticular pinyon pine was the one on the right in the immediately preceding slide.
There are nearly countless references on P. edulis , but given these canyonlands cases were in Utah, Buren et al. (2011,p. 118) was recommended for basic treatment. For silvics, Burns and Honkala (1990) is the standard. There are literally upwards of a hundred (or more) symposia proceedings and similar "grey literature" (often under Forest Service sponsorship) regarding the pinyon-juniper woodlands. "Information overload!"
Arches National Park, Grand County, Utah. Late July, immature female cones-stage of phenology.
85. Big shrub in the rocks- Large specimen of Mexican or Stansbury cliffrose (Cowania mexicana var. stansburyana= C. stansburyana= Purshia mexicana var stansburyana) growing on the top of a sandstone butte as a member of the pinyon pine-Utah juniper savanna to woodland in the Colorado Plateau. This single-trunk, tree-form that as over ten feet tall could be regarded as a small tree as this species infreqently attains to.
There has been debate as to proper genus and species of this member of the rose family. This species has been reported to integrade with antelope bitterbrush (Purshia trridentata) (Allred and Ivey, 201, p. 520; van Buren et al., 2011, p. 399) which would seemingly settle the matter of it being in the Purshia genus. What is not debated, however,is the high nutritive value of this important browse plant which is palatable to both livestock, including cattle as well as small ruminants, and wildlife, espeocially mule deer.
Standard references for this valuable broswe species included Dayton (1931, ps. 49-50), (McMinn, 1939, ps. 204-205), Forest Service (1940, B68), Vines (1960, p.425), Welsh et al. 1993, p. 611), van Buren et al. (2011, p. 399), and Carter (2012, p. 197).
Arches National Park, Grand County, Utah. Late July, fruit-ripe stage of phenology.
86. Cliff-ripe- Three progressively closer views of fruit-bearing leaders down to ripe fruit (first through third slide, respectively) of Mexican cliffrose. The fruit of Mexican or Stansbury cliffrose is an achene with a fairly large, plumose persistent style. Cliffrose is clearly one of the most valuable broswe plants on ranges of the various cover types in which it grows.
Arches National Park, Grand County, Utah. Late July, fruit-ripe stage of phenology.
87. Green (and, undoubted, old) champion- Large, obviously old plant of green Mormon tea (Ephedra viridis var. viridis) growing at base of sandstone spire in the Canyon Lands section of the Colorado Plateau. Ephedra species are dioecious (separate male and female plants). This old geiser was a male plant.
Arches National Park, Grand County, Utah. Late July, post-pollination stage of phenology.
88. Not a fir, but jonted "fur sur"- Leader (branch or major shoot) with units of shorter shoots (first slide) and units of shorter shoots (second slide) of green Mormon tea growing in the canyonlands of the Colorado Plateau. These shoots were growing on the large male plant introduced in the preceding slide. Joint-fir is another general common name for the gymnosperm species known generally as Mormon tea or Mexican tea. Ephedra species are obviously not a "fir" (joint or otherwise), but are in their own family, Ephedraceae, withn the Gymnospermae.
Mormon tea (less commonly, Mexican tea) is derived from the practice of extracting a hot drink (non-alcoholic, of course, if drunk by Mormons) by brewing (= steeping) smaller branches or shoots of Ephedra species in hot water. According to Welsh et al. (1993, p. 30) E. viridis was the main species used for Mormon tea. The Mormon settlers probably learned this from the indigenous Indians. Anyway, for this teadrinker's taste the brew is a poor substitute for real tea, coffee, or about anything slse (at least among non-alcoholic drinks), but the alkaloid (theobromine and caffeine are the main ones) content of the "real stuff" renders these off limits to devout Mormons. So for the Saints, it's back Ephedra joints (at least baring divine revelation to the contrary).
Arches National Park, Grand County, Utah. Late July, post-pollination stage of phenology.
89. Green and jointed (of a fashion) Closer-in view of shoots of a male plant of green Mormon tea in the cluster or whorl (unit) of shoots in the center of the immediately preceding slide. Ephedra species, especially E. viridis, is a characteristic gymnosperm shrub in various range plant communities of the Colorado Plateau. Good, overall treatments of the Ephedra species of the Colorado Plateau and surrounding areas of the Basin and Range and Great Basin physiogrphic provinces included McMinn (1939, ps. 44-47), Sampson and Jespersen (1963, p. 47), Vines (1960, p. 39), Welsh et al. (1993, ps. 30-31), van Buren et al. (2011, p. 113), and Carter (2012, ps. 36, 40). Many of these references made mention of the value of green mormon tea as bowse for livestock as well as wildlife though it is typically only Fair in nutritive value.
Arches National Park, Grand County, Utah. Late July, post-pollination stage of phenology.
90. Ready to open-- Closed-but-about-to-open ovuliferous cones of green Mormon tea growing in the Colorado Plateau (southeastern Utah). Ephedra species are dioecious.
Grand County, Utah. Late July; immediate pre-opening phenological stage.
Oraganization and location note: The pinyon pine-Utah juniper range vegetation presented here was obviously part of the vast pinyon-juniper woodland that covers millions of acres across the Western Range. Something of a complication arises, however, because the shrub-size and shape of these conifers also permits them to be regarded as shrubs so that this range plant community could also be interpreted as a shrubland. This is even more the case given a predominance of shrubs (eg. Mexican cliffrose) in much of the space amid pinyon pines and Utah junipers. Furthermore, Utah juniper and, less frequently, pinyon pine grew as a major tree or shrub component in blackbrush scrub that was contiguous with this pinyon-Utah juniper zone.
A simple solution was to include examples of this canyonlands vegetation in which pinyon pine and Utah juniper were major components in both the chapter on miscellaneous shrublands and that of the pinyon pine-juniper woodlands. This arrangement might be confusing or it could prove more convenient. Either way that was the author's rationale for dual inclusion.
91. Natural amphithere- Circular pattern or form of a local standstone arrangement provided these two panoramic views of the range vegetation of a pinyon pine-Utah juniper woodland (more like a savannah) in the Canyon Lands section of the Colorado Plateau. Both conifer species were present in both of these views. Other important range plant species included blackbrush, green Mormon tea, Mexican cliffrose, skunkbush sumac (Rhus aromatica= R. trilobata), desert or tulip pricklypear, Arizona threeawn (Aristida arizonica), and Indian ricegrass.
Canyonlands National Park, Grand County, Utah. Late July, estival aspect. FRES No. 35 (Pinyon-Juniper Shrubland Ecosystem), K-21Juniper-Pinyon Woodland. SRM 412 (Juniper-Pinyon Woodland), mixed shrub understorey; savanna variant. Pinyon-Juniper Series 122.71, Great Basin Conifer Woodland 122.7 of Cold Temperate Forest and Woodland 122 (Brown et al., 1998, p. 38). Colorado Plateaus- Semiarid Benchlands and Canyonlands ecoregion 20c (Woods et al., 2001).
92. Where the pickin's are slimest- Large outcrops of sandstone (probably of several formations) provided the basic habitat for a pinyon pine- Utah juniper woodland (primarily a savanna physiogonomy) in the Colorado Plateau (Canyon Lands section). For detailed coverage, including color photographs, of the geology and soil parent material see the Soil Survey, Arches National Park (Natural Resorces Conservation Service, 2011, ps. 12-21). Besides the two conifers, other range plants included blackbrush, Mexican cliffrose, green Mormon tea, Havard's or sand shinnery oak, desert or tulip pricklypear, Arizona threeawn, a few widely scattered plants of singleleaf ash, and various nonvascular cryptogams especially ).
The part of the pinyon-juniper woodland cover type seen here is the harshest environment of the Colorado Plateau form or subtype of the pinyon-juniper asociation.There were various range sites present in the panoramic perspective of these two landscape-scale views, buth the major (and most conspicuous) one was the Shallow Sand Rock Pocket range. This range site often occurs or develops in very local areas such as ledges or crevices in "hills" of sandstone. In effect the tiny environments are micro-range sites or, as an alternative interpretation, as a mosaic or "patchwork" of "solid" sandstone with sporadic pockets of lithic soils.
An example of one such micro-habitat was the subject of the next slide/caption unit...
Canyonlands National Park, Grand County, Utah. Late July, estival aspect. FRES No. 35 (Pinyon-Juniper Shrubland Ecosystem), K-21Juniper-Pinyon Woodland. SRM 412 (Juniper-Pinyon Woodland), mixed shrub understorey; savanna variant. Pinyon-Juniper Series 122.71, Great Basin Conifer Woodland 122.7 of Cold Temperate Forest and Woodland 122 (Brown et al., 1998, p. 38). Shallow Sand Rock Pocket range site (Natural Resources Conservation Service, 2011). Colorado Plateaus- Semiarid Benchlands and Canyonlands ecoregion 20c (Woods et al., 2001).
93. About as local (and life-hostile) as they come- A local range plant community in a depression in an outccrop of sandstone in the Colorado Plateau (Canyon Lands section). In a In spite of the harshness and hostile-to-life nature of this micro-range site it provided habitat for both range plants and animals. The conspicuous cactus was tulip or deserrt pricklypear. Arizona threeawn was present in the left and right foreground while an unidentified pre-bloom composite occupied much of the space between the two plants of Arizona hreeawn.
As to range wildlife, there was a barely discernable (in the slide shown at this size) western or tiger whiptail lizard (Cnemidophorus tigris= Aspidoscelis tigris) to the upper right of the top of the pricklypear.
The local assembly of organisms on this "hard-scramble" habitat illustrated a fundamental biological principle: almost any area of Earth's space is "home" to some living things. No matter how "inhospitable" or contrary-to-life a given environment may be, it is home to some species.
Canyonlands National Park, Grand County, Utah. Late July, estival aspect. FRES No. 35 (Pinyon-Juniper Shrubland Ecosystem), K-21Juniper-Pinyon Woodland. SRM 412 (Juniper-Pinyon Woodland), mixed shrub understorey; savanna variant. Pinyon-Juniper Series 122.71, Great Basin Conifer Woodland 122.7 of Cold Temperate Forest and Woodland 122 (Brown et al., 1998, p. 38). Shallow Sand Rock Pocket range site (Natural Resources Conservation Service, 2011). Colorado Plateaus- Semiarid Benchlands and Canyonlands ecoregion 20c (Woods et al., 2001).
94. Home in spaces amid rocks- Two cespitose plants of Arizona threeawn (first two slides) and part of the infloresceence of the second of these plants (third slide). Aristida arizonica is very similar to taxa in the A. purpurea complex, but A. arizonica is partially distinguished from members of the A. purpurea complex by leaf blades that upon drying curl around and resemble woodshavings (Allred and Ivey, 2012, p. 634). This feature is the basis for the other common name of curly threeawn (Forest Service, 1940, p. G17)rThe woodshavings leaves were conspicuous in specimens presented in the first two of these slides.
The third slide presented the characteristically contracted panicle of Arizona threeawn.
Forest Servic (1940, p. G17) described the highly variable forage value of Arizona or curly threeawn as ranging from Good when green to "practically worthless" when dry and until winter or spring moisture softens the hard, curled leaves of the previous growing season. Curly threeawn initiates spring growth earlier than most neighboring grass species and can "produce considerable succulent forage in early spring" (Forest,Service, 1940, p. G17).
All-in-all Arizona threeawn is a valuable forage species. Current taxonomic authority for Arizona threeawn was that of Barkworth et al. (2003, ps. 335, 336), but priority was reserved for treatment in A Utah Flora (Welsh et al., 1993, p. 790).
Canyonlands National Park, Grand County, Utah. Late July, mid-maturity of grain phenological stage.
95. On the rock surface itself- Cryptogamic range plants formed this biological soil crust on the surface of sandstone rocks in the colorful Red Rock Country of southeastern Utah (part of the Canyon Lands section of the Colorado Plateau physiographic province).Biological soil crust are intricate and complex communities and incompletely understood (and understudied) ecosystems.
These two "photoplots" presented "nested" views with the overall community shown in the first slide and a subset of this community in the second slide. The crust seen here was probably mostly that of cyanobacteria (ie. a cyanobacterial soil crust).
Vascular range plants present in the first slide included blackbrush, green Mormon tea, and Arizona threeawn.
Canyonlands National Park, Grand County, Utah. Late July,
96. Crust at close quarters- Closer-up views of the biological (mostly, cyanobacterial) soil crust shown in the immediately preceding two-slide/cption unit. These slides also presented a "nested" set of "photoplots" with the second slide being a subset or portion of the crust shown in the first slide.
Biological soil crusts have only recently become a subject of intense research scrutiny. Role of these unique cryptogamic communities in the overall range ecosystem are largely unknown, but they certainly deserve protection as well as further investigation.
Definitive, "all-that-most-of-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about" references for biological soil crusts are those of Belna and Lange (2001) and Weber et al, (2016).
Canyonlands National Park, Grand County, Utah. Late July.
97. Colorado Plateau canyonlands savannah- A savanna form of the pinyon pine-Utah juniper range cover type in the Red Rock Country of southeast Utah. In addition to the cover co-dominant conifers, other important range lants included blackbrush, Mexican cliffrose, green Mormon tea, Fremont's agarito or Fremont's mahonia (Berberis fremontii= Mahonia fremontii), desert or tulip pricklypear, Indian ricegrass, Arizona threeawn, and spike dropseed. Forbs were, for all practical purposes, absent.
These two slides were presented as a "nested photoplot" arrangement with the second slide, which featured a large plant of Fremont's agarito, being a subunit or "nested" subplot within the firest slide which included the same plant of Fremont's agarito. (This plant was photographed at a slightly different camera angle in the second or closer-in slide.)
The rangeland seen in these two slides was contiguous with and only a short distance from the sandstone outcrop area presented above.
Canyonlands National Park, Grand County, Utah. Late July, estival aspect. FRES No. 35 (Pinyon-Juniper Shrubland Ecosystem), K-21Juniper-Pinyon Woodland. SRM 412 (Junier-Pinyon Woodland), mixed shrub understorey; savanna variant. Pinyon-Juniper Series 122.71, Great Basin Conifer Woodland 122.7 of Cold Temperate Forest and Woodland 122 (Brown et al., 1998, p. 38). Colorado Plateaus- Semiarid Benchlands and Canyonlands ecoregion 20c (Woods et al., 2001).
98. A shadow of the explorer- Fremont's algerita or Fremont's agarito (Berberis fremontii= Mahonia fremontii) presesnted from the crown of a single large shrub down to individual leaves and fruit (fruit type is a berry) of that plant which was growing on a canyonlands savanna of pinyon pine, Utah juniper, blackbrush, Mexican cliffrose, green Mormon tea, Arizona threeawn and spike dropseed.
Welsh et al. (1993, p. 61) explained that traditionally plant taxonomists interpreted Mahonia as a subgenus of Berberis, but they concluded that Mahonia was distinctive enough to be viewed as a separate genus from Berberis. Welsh et al. (1993, p. 61) showed species names in both genera (alternative species names) and so did this author. The specific epithet commerates the great explorer, John C. Fremont who collected the type specimen for this species one of his jaunts in the Great Basin.
Vines (1960, p. 270) provided a good introduction to Fremont's agarito including remarking that the spiny, evergreen leaves of this member of the barbary family (Berberidaceae) are eaten by deer and even black bear (Ursus americanus).
Another common name for this shrub species is desert barberry or desert mahonia Vines (1960, p. 270) pointed out that as with all the barberry species (Berberis, Mahonia spp.), Fremont's barberry (still yet another vernacular name) is an intermediate host for the cereal disease, black stem wheat rust (Puccinia graminis).
Canyonlands National Park, Grand County, Utah. Late July, ripening-fruit phenological stage.
99. About as grassy as it ever gets- Five individual plants (genotypes) of spike dropseed (Sporobolus contractus) growing on a savanna form of pinyonpine-Utah juniper-shrub-grass savanna (first slide) and closer-in view of parts of four plants of spike dropseed on a Indian ricegrass-dominated semidesert grassland (second slide) in the Red Rock Country of southeast Utah.
Spike dropseed is a strictly cespitose species the shoots of which are all tillers. Aoo of the plants presented here had been ungrazed and were still in the dormant state (even in early mid-summer) awaiting adequate moisture for green-up. Other plants of spike dropseed in this same general area had received adequate rainfall for growth to full-shoot development and sexual reproduction stage of phenology. Anexample of one of these plants was presented immediately below.
Canyonlands National Park, Grand County, Utah (first slide), Grand County, Utah (second slide). Late July, dormancy stage of phenology.
100. Dropped on the Plateau- A single plant of spike dropseed (Sporobolus contractus) presented as the overall aboveground part of the specimen (first slide) and basal shoots (second slide) growing on a semidesert grassland in the Red Rock Country of southeast Utah which is in the Canyon Lands section of the Colorado Plateau physiographic province. This individual was growing in a depression within a deep sand microsite, the preferred habitat for this dune-stabilizing species (Welsh et al., 1993, p. 873).
Several dead shoots (tillers) from the previous growing season were still present in this ungrazed specimen.
Authoritative taxonomic treatment for spike dropseed was Barkworth et al. (2003, ps. 129, 130), but given that this specimen was a "Utahan" A Utah Flora (Welsh et al., 1993, p. 873) was cited last for emphssis (and prioroy).
Canyonlands National Park, San Juan County, Utah. Late July; early bloom (anthesis) phenological stage.
101. About as contracted as they come- Sexual shoot with contracted panicle (first slide) and two prgresively closer views of the contracted panicle of spike dropseed growing in the Red Rock Country of southeast Utah, part of the Canyon Lands section of the Colorado Plateau physiographic provice. These three slides were all of the plant (with its single panicle) that was introduced in the immediately preceding two-slide/caption set.
The panicle of spike dropseed has the contracted morphological form, a pattern in which very short, secondary branches come off of the central stalk (the rachis-like part of the tiller) of the panicle, to about as pronounced an extent as in any grass species. Retention of part of the lower panicle within the boot (sheath of the leaf at base of the inflorescence), even in anthesis, is a floral characteristic of many Sporobolus species. The leaf at base of the inflorescence in grasses is called the flag leaf. The flag leaf in this specimen was shown at overall view in the first slide and at closer-up distance in the third slide
Spike dropseed can be a major grass species in parts of the semidesert grassland, especially those dominated by Indian ricegrass, and the pinyon pine-Utah juniper woodland although this is often in more restricted rather than general distribution in these range types. While spike dropseed is not of widespread importance , the species is valuable enough that there have been selected releases of it from Plant Materials Centers in Texas and Arizona (Carr, 2009).
Canyonlands National Park, San Juan County, Utah. Late July; early bloom (anthesis) phenological stage.
101. A forb of canyonland scrub and semidesert gassland- Yellow beeplant or yellow spiderplant (Cleome lutea) is a member of the caper family (Capparaceae). This attractive (and very conspicuous) annual forb does indeed attract bees as well as other insects. Yellow spiderplant has limited forage value for small ruminants like sheep, but it adds color to an already colorful range landscape. With renewed interest in native pollinators--perhaps their basic survival as species--important pollinator plants on the range take on even greater importance.
Canyonlands National Park, Grand County, Utah. Late July; full-bloom/early fruit stages of phenology.
A community clasification conundrum: presented and described in the section immediately below was a range plant community (expressed in several forms) dominated variously by galleta, Indian ricegrass, matscale or mat saltbush, or Bigelow's sagebrush or, sometimes, flat sagebrush (Artemisia bigelovii) with other range species including spiny hopsage, bottlebrush squirreltail, cheatgrass, and desert trumpet.
This rangeland was part of a BLM cattle allotment. At the time when the following slides were taken, degree of use on galleta and Indian ricegrass had exeeded proper use such that almost all grass plants had been overused. IF adequate quantities of rain fell subsequent to this time, galleta and Indian ricegrass could have recovered such that utilization for the entire growing season was not excesive. At this point in time, however, overuse of the key grass species had definitedly occurred.
It could not be determined by the author if the potential natural (= climax) range plant community was s shrubland dominated by mat saltbush and Bigelow's sagebrush with galleta and Indian ricegrass as dominant herbaceous species or if this was semidesert grassland savanna (a savanna form of semidesert grassland) in which galleta and Indian ricegrass were the dominants and matscale and Bigelow's sagebrush were the major shrub species. There was not a relict or remnant of this range plant community that was obviously at or approaching climax that could serve as a vegetational reference point or successional benchmark.
Whichever it was, degree of use (utilization) of galleta, the dominant grass had been excessive (ie. overuse of the dominant herbaceous plant species). IF this current measure of grazing land management (and rangeland status) was indicative of past management, it was likely that the climax range plant community or the state of pre-Columbian native vegetation was a semidesert grassland savanna or shrub steppe. Conversely, the range sites were Desert Loamy Shale and Desert Shallow Clay (Soil Conservation Service, 1970; Natural Resources Conservation Service ecological site descriptions, online) implying that this was scrubland with the potential natural vegetation being a shrubland with an interrupted herbaceous layer of both cespitose and rhizomatous grasses.
For this reason, the following range plant community was shown both here under Scrublands of the Colorado Plateau and in the chapter entitled Semidesert Grassland- IB under the heading, Colorado Plateau Semidesert Grassland.
102. Beautiful to desert rats and rangemen (whatever it was)- Landscape of rangeland community comprised of mat saltbush, Bigelow's sagebrush, galleta, and Indian ricegrass with much less cover and fewer plants of spiny hopsage, bottlebrush squirrel, desert trumpet, and cheatgrass. This range was part of a BLM cattle allotment. There was overuse of galleta and most plants of Indian ricegrass. This was evidence suggestive that this was deteriorated range with a range plant community that was at some seral stage rather than climax. If this was the situation such that this range was in, say, Fair to low Good range condition class the rational conclusion would be that this was a savanna form of semidesert grassland on which Indian ricegrass and galleta were climax dominants with matscale and Bigelow's sagebrush as climax associate species.
It was also possible that this was desert scrubland on which mat saltbush and Bigelow's sagebrush were the climax co-dominants (or, perhaps, bigelow's sage was associate to matscale) and with Indian ricegrass and galleta as co-dominants of a sporadic herbaceous zone.
he first slide featured an ungrazed plant of Indian ricegrass in right-center foreground and a heavily (= an overused) plant of Indian ricegrass in left foreground. In the midground was the same combination of variously used Indian ricegrass. There were also plants of gallet all of which had been overused (proper degree of use exceeded).
The second slide presented physiogonomy, structure, and composition of this range plant community with two plants of mat saltbush or matscale in left and right corners while plants of Indian ricegrass and galleta were growing in between the two matscale plants.
Even at substantial departure from climax (whether that was desert scrub or semidesert grassland) this arid Colorado Plateau "rangescape" was raw beauty to any "true-blue" rangeman.
Bureau of Land Management, Price Field Office, Emery County, Utah. Late July; estival aspect; semi-dormancy stage of the major range plants. FRES No. 40 (Desert Grasslands Ecosystem). K- None; Kuchler missed it "big time". SRM- None (got so hung up on sagebrush and other scrub types that they missed semidesert grasslands of Great Basin/Colorado Plateau Region). Or was it shrubland? Either way they missed that, too. So was it Ricegrass Series 142.23, Great Basin Shrub-Grasssland 142.2, of Cold Temperate Grassland 142 (Brown et al., 1998, p. 40)? Or was it Mixed Shrub Series 152.16,Great Basin Desertscrub 152.1, of ColdTemperate Desertland (Brown et al., 1998, p. 40)? Desert Loamy Shale range site, first or upper slide, and Desert Shallow Clay range site, second or lower slide, (Soil Conservation Service, 1970; Natural Resources Conservation Service, online ecological site description). Colorado Plateaus- Shale Deserts ecoregion 20b (Woods et al., 2001).
103. But was it natural or degraded range vegetation?- Two slopes of range vegetation consisting of mat saltbush, bigelow's sagebrush, galleta, and Indian ricegrass on shale-derived soils in the Colorado Plateau. The two views seen here were partof the same BLM allotment cattle range introduced in the two preceding images. There had been overuse of the two grass species, galleta had been especially heavily used. The overuse of essentially all the galleta was shown in the foreground of the first slide. Most of the shrubs behind the overused galleta were Bigelow's sagebrush with some matscale, spiny hopsage, and, even, an occasional Whipple's cholla (Opuntia whipplei).
The second slide featured a female of mat saltbush heavily laden with fruit (urticles) with a plant of Bigelow's sagrbrush immediately behind the female matscale. Shrub cover in the background consisted mostly of these two shrub species but with some spiny hopsage.
Bureau of Land Management, Price Field Office, Emery County, Utah. Late July; estival aspect; semi-dormancy stage of the major range plants. FRES No. 40 (Desert Grasslands Ecosystem). K- None; Kuchler missed it "big time". SRM- None (got so hung up on sagebrush and other scrub types that they missed semidesert grasslands of Great Basin/Colorado Plateau Region). Or was it shrubland? Either way they missed that, too. So was it Ricegrass Series 142.23, Great Basin Shrub-Grasssland 142.2, of Cold Temperate Grassland 142 (Brown et al., 1998, p. 40)? Or was it Mixed Shrub Series 152.16,Great Basin Desertscrub 152.1, of ColdTemperate Desertland (Brown et al., 1998, p. 40)? Desert Loamy Shale range site (Soil Conservation Service, 1970; Natural Resources Conservation Service, online ecological site description). Colorado Plateaus- Shale Deserts ecoregion 20b (Woods et al., 2001).
104. Some citizens of the Coloraado Plateau- Three "photoplots" presented various range plant species growing on a degraded range (past overgrazing; and overuse was still taking place) that was part of a BLM cattle allotment. The first of these three slides showed plants of Bigelow's sagebrush (most were dorant with shed leaves) and, in right mid-ground, a female matscale with bottlebrush squirreltail growing up through her crown.
The second slide also featured a female mat saltbush with a more-or-less ungrazed (very lightly grazed) small plant of Indian ricegrass.
The third slide showed a male plant of matscale, a plant of spiny hopsage, and a nice specimen of Whipple's cholla (Opuntia whipplei) left to right, respectively. The cholla species of Opuntia are in subgenus, Cylindropuntia which some authorities have elevated to its own genus.
Bureau of Land Management, Price Field Office, Emery County, Utah. Late July; estival aspect; semi-dormancy stage of the major range plants. FRES No. 40 (Desert Grasslands Ecosystem). K- None; Kuchler missed it "big time". SRM- None (got so hung up on sagebrush and other scrub types that they missed semidesert grasslands of Great Basin/Colorado Plateau Region). Or was it shrubland? Either way they missed that, too. So was it Ricegrass Series 142.23, Great Basin Shrub-Grasssland 142.2, of Cold Temperate Grassland 142 (Brown et al., 1998, p. 40)? Or was it Mixed Shrub Series 152.16,Great Basin Desertscrub 152.1, of ColdTemperate Desertland (Brown et al., 1998, p. 40)? Desert Loamy Shale range site, first or upper slide, and Desert Shallow Clay range site, second and third slides, (Soil Conservation Service, 1970; Natural Resources Conservation Service, online ecological site description). Colorado Plateaus- Shale Deserts ecoregion 20b (Woods et al., 2001).
105. Landscape- and "close-by"- scales- Vista of a Colorado Plateau landscape (first slide) and a closer-up "nested" portion of the range landscape (second slide) that was vegetated with mat saltbush, Bigelow's sagebrush, galleta, and Indian ricegrass as major plant species and black greasewood (Sarcobatus vermiculaus) as the local dominant in moister areas of draws.
This range landscape mosaic was a composite (Mother Nature's own "quiltwork" pattern) of at least three range sites: 1) Desert Loamy Shale, 2) Desert Shallow Clay, and 3) Desert Cobbly Loam (Soil Conservation Service, 1970). Range vegetation on the first two of these range sites (and in this same pasture of a BLM cattle allotment) was presented in the immediately preceding three slide/caption units. The range plant community of the Desert Cobbly Loam range site was dominated by black greasewood and was shown in the seond of these two slides. This second slide which featured black greasewood was a "nested" view of a small part of the range landscape seen in the first slide. This second "nested photoplot" was in the left side of the draw visible in the far mid-ground of the first slide.
Some plants of the major range species of the other two range sites--namely, matscale, Bigelow's sagebrush, galleta, Indian ricegrass, and spiny hopsage--accompanied black greasewood, but range vegetation of the Desert Cobbly Loam range site was clearly a shrubland. This appeared to be the potential natural vegetation,though perhaps with proportionately greater cover of the unpalatable black greasewood due to preferential feeding o (and commensurate overuse of) the grasses by catttle.
Greasewood is generally regarded as a phreatophyte and it could be assmed that the plants in this draw were surviving by having the deep taproots in the capillary fringe or vadose zone of the surface aquifer or, at least, moisture in deeper zones of the soil profile and probably in earthen strata below the soil.
Bureau of Land Management, Price Field Office, Emery County, Utah. Late July; estival aspect; semi-dormancy stage of the major range plants. FRES No. 40 (Desert Grasslands Ecosystem). K- None; Kuchler missed it "big time". SRM- None (got so hung up on sagebrush and other scrub types that they missed semidesert grasslands of Great Basin/Colorado Plateau Region). Or was it shrubland? Either way they missed that, too. So was it Ricegrass Series 142.23, Great Basin Shrub-Grasssland 142.2, of Cold Temperate Grassland 142 (Brown et al., 1998, p. 40)? Or was it Mixed Shrub Series 152.16,Great Basin Desertscrub 152.1, of Cold Temperate Desertland (Brown et al., 1998, p. 40)? Range sites were composite or patchwork of Desert Loamy Shale, Desert Shallow Clay, and Desert Cobbly Loam (Soil Conservation Service, 1970; Natural Resources Conservation Service, online ecological site description). Colorado Plateaus- Shale Deserts ecoregion 20b (Woods et al., 2001).
106. Neither black nor greasy- Single plant of black greasewoody (Sarcobatus vermiculatus) growing in the Canyon Laands section of the Colorado Plateau. Greasewood is well-known for developiong elaborate root systems including branched deep taproots, often reaching to the capillary fringe of ground waater, and dense arrangements of shallow lateral roots that absorb percolating soil water (Fire Effects Information System, U.S. Forest Service, online).
107. Leaders and leaves of a woody one- Three or four long vertically oriented branches of a black greasewood plant (first or upper slide) and details of the outermost portion of a lateral branch (leader) showing characteristic leaves on one of the major vertical branches (second or lower slide).
Arches National Park, Grand County, Utah. Late July.
In various western mountain ranges, especially those of the Intermountain West, various species of mountain mahogany are major, often dominant, shrubs. Mountain mahogany species occupy niches as important browse species on grasslands, savannas, and forests. For instance, true mountain mahogany (C. montanus) often comprises a shrub layer in ponderosa, western yellow, pine (Pinus ponderosa). This range type was treated under the Woodlands and Forests biome in the chapter entitled Northern and Central Rocky Mountain Forests. On drier mountain slopes such as on ranges in the Great Basin a unique scrubland dominated by curl-leaf mountain mahogany develops at elevations just above the pinyon pine-juniper woodland zone. The relatively restricted curlleaf mountain mahogany shrubland, SRM 415 (Curlleaf Mountain Mahogany), was regarded by the current author as being of such patchy and limited spatial occurrence that it was included as a miscellaneous scrub type. SRM 415 was also included in the Intermountain Forest chapter wherein it can be studied with conterminous zones of forest range communities.
102. Upper elevation of Upper Sonoran Life Zone- Curl-leaf mountain-mahogany (Cercocarpus ledifolius) shrubland was the range vegetation at the highest elevation of the Upper Sonoran Life Zone in the Snake Mountains. These two landscape-scale photographs depicted characteristic curl-leaf mountain mahogany scrubland in the Snake Range relative to zones (= belts) of range plant communities in these mountains. Zonal range vegetation was determined to large extent by factors (precipitation, temperture, soils, degree of slope, winds, etc. ) associated with differences in elevation and, to lesser degree, direction of slope (eg. north, south, west slopes).
Distant range vegetation that was dark green in color was tree-dominated range plant communities. That which was below (lower in elevation) this mountain-mahogany belt were various communities dominated by singleleaf pinyon pine and juniper (primarily Utah juniper). Natural plant communities above this zone of mountain mahogany scrub (higher in elevation) were vrious forest cover types (ponderosa pine-Douglas-fir, quaking aspen, Englemann spruce, limber pine, and bristle cone pine). The bare area on the distant mountain, which was Wheeler Peak, was the alpine range ecosystem above timberline.
Some of the curl-leaf mountain-mahogany plants were of heights (as tall as 15-25 feet) more typical of trees than shrubs, but almost all such plants were of the multi-stemed habit characteristic of shrubs. This woody plant-dominated (based on canopy cover, physiogonomy, plant height) vegetation was therefore defined precisely as shrubland or scrub and not woodland.
There was one-- sometimes two-- layer(s) lower layers of plants. Shrubs that were relative common in lower woody layer(s) included low sagebrush (which was the understorey dominant in the adjacent and lower Utah juniper-low sagebrush range community), viscid rabbitbrush, hairy golden aster, and fringed sagebrush (Artemisia frigida). Composites were clearly "in control" of lower shrub layer(s).
The herbaceous layer of this range vegetation was dominated by muttongrass of Fendler's bluegrass. The associate herb was the range forb, lanceleaf phacelia (Phacelia hastata= P. leucophylla). Many of the same range forb species grew on this belt of mountain-mahogany scrub range and the adjacent zone of Utah juniper-low sagebrush-grass range.
Great Basin National Park, White Pine County, Nevada. June, estival aspect. Elevation was roughly 8,000 to 8,500 feet up to as high as 9,000 feet on dry south and west slopes. FRES No. 34 (Chaparral-Mountain Shrub Shrubland Ecosystem). K- 31 (Mountain-mahogany-Oak Scrub), mountain-mahogany variant thereof. SRM 415 (Curlleaf Mountain Mahogany). Mountain-Mahogany Series 132.12 of Great Basin Montane Scrub 132.1 of Brown et al. (1998, p. 39). Cercocarpus ledifolius Shrubland Alliance is as far as can go because National Vegetation Classificatioin for Nevada (Nevada Natural Heritage Program, 26 September, 2003) did list a community (association) of this composition. Central Basin and Range- Carbonate Woodland Zone Ecoregion, 13q (Bryce et al., 2003).
103. Scrub range in the Snake Range- Interior of the curl-leaf mountain-mahogany-low shrub-muttongrass scrubland range presented in the two immediately preceding photographs. The multi-stemmed habit of mountain-mahogany plants was pronounced. Herbaceous and woody layers in the understorey of this range vegetation varied greatly at local (microclimate) scale. Single species of plants tended to form local populations or colonies (Clements, process of aggregation or "birds of a feather flock together"). This was particularly so for lanceleaf phacelia and muttongrass. Perhaps this was a combination of plant dispersal characteristics and considerable vriation in edaphic habitat at scale of microsites.
Several plants of fringed sage were noticable in foreground of both photographs.
Great Basin National Park, White Pine County, Nevada. June, estival aspect. Elevation was approximately 8,000 to 8,500 feet up to 9,000 feet on south and othr dry slopes. FRES No. 24 (Chaparral-Mountain Shrub Shrubland Ecosystem). K-31 (Mountain-mahogany-Oak Scrub), "pure" mountain-mahogany variant thereof. SRM 415 (Curlleaf Mountain Mahogany). Mountain-Mahogany Series 132.12 of Great Basin Montane Scrub 132.1 of Brown et al. (1998, p. 39). Cercocarpus ledifolius Shrubland Alliance is "it" because there was not an association level in National Vegetation Classification for Nevada (Nevada Natural Heritage Program, 26 September, 2003) having this composition. Central Basin and Range- Carbonate Woodland Zone Ecoregion, 13q (Bryce et al., 2003).
104. Curlleaf mountain-mahogany (Cercocarpus ledifolius)- Typical plant of this shrub species in the Snake Range of the Great Basin. Description of this species as to browse value was in the Range Plant Handbook (Forest Service, 1940, B50) as well as Dayton, 1931, p. 45) and Sampson and Jespersen (1963, ps. 80-81). See also Lanner (1984, ps.180-182) for a brief natural history.
Snake Range, Great Basin National Park, White Pine County, Nevada. June, pre-bloom stage.
70. Curlleaf mountain-mahogany - Typical columnar habit of curlleaf mountain mahogany. According to Dayton (1931, p. 45) this is probably the largest and most treelike of the Cercocarpus species. In addition, it has evergreen leaves which increase it's browse value during winter months. Rock Canyon, Utah County, Utah. June.
71. Leaders of curlleaf mountain mahogany- Bark and leaves of curlleaf mountain mahogany. Rock Canyon, Utah County, Utah. June.
C. montanus and C. ledifolius were described in the various editions of North American Range Plants (Stubbendieck et al., 1981, 1982, 1986, 1992) and the Range Plant Handbook (Forest Service, 1940, B49-B51) as well as miscellaneous state and regional references on browse plants such as for California (McMinn, 1939, ps. 205-209; Sampson and Jesperson, 1963, p. 78-81) and eastern Oregon and Washington (Hayes and Garrison 1960, ps.178-180).
72. Muttongrass, Fendler's bluegrass, or mutton bluegrass (Poa fendeleriana)- This delightful festucoid grass was the dominant herbaceous species on a curl-leaf mountain-mahogany scrubland range.Muttongrass (descriptive common name for value of this species as sheep forage) is one of the most important of all bluegrasses on the Western Range. A valuable practical description of muttongrass was provided by the Range Plant Handbook (Forest Service, 1940, G100). This remarkable species ranges from the Chisos Mountains of Trans Pecos Texas to British Columbia.
Muttongrass has deservedly been on the Society for Range Management "200 list" for the Intercollegiate Range Plant Contest.
These fine specimens were in the understorey of a curl-leaf mountain-mahogany scrub range (on which it was the dominant herbaceous species). Snake Mountains, Great Basin National Park, White Pine County, Nevada. June, grain-ripe stage.
73. Panicles of muttongrass- Panicles with large spikelets of full of ripe grain in Poa fendeleriana. Spikelets of muttongrass are some of the largest of any bluegrass species in North America. Fendler's bluegrass is a major range forage species in the mountains of the Great Basin.
Snake Range, Great Basin National Park, White Pine County, Nevada. June, "seed-ripe" phenological stage
The so-called Painted Desert is strictly speaking a series of canyonlands and badlands with a mosaic pattern of climax vegetation consisting of different scrublands intermingled with different types of semidesert grasasland in the Colorado Plateau physiographic province stretching from the Monument Valley, Grand Canyon of the Colorado River across to the Petrified Forest. The Painted Desert is thus not solely a desert as it includes sizable areas of semidesert grassland. Also, badlands are not necessarily deserts. Badlands can be regarded as "edaphic deserts" and sometimes there are badlands in deserts (ie. desert badlands), a true desert is a climatic desert not just any habitat that has a seric habitat. For example, a rock face, boulder, sand bar, or dry, shallow soil is not a desert even though such habitates might be more xeric than the Sahara Desert. The Painted Desert marks the southern extremity of the Great Basin Desert and parts of the Painted Desert are within the regional Great Basin Desert, a true desert. Other parts of the Painted Desert are grasslands, even mesic grasslands as along washes or in marshes of alluvial fans. Much of the Colorado Plateau is pinyon pine-juniper woodland and some of this range type is within the Painted Desert. In addition, there are shrublands in the part of the Colorado Plateau interpreted as the Painted Desert.
Some of the shrubland (= scrub) range types within the Navajo Section of the Painted Desert are distinctive and not part of the Great Basin Desert. These limited range types that are not part of the Great Basin scrub or semidesert graslands were included in the short section that followed.
74. Unique range scrub with a very restricted geologic range- A shrubland community composed of skunkbush sumac (Rhus trilobata= R. aromatica), fourwing saltbush (Atriplex canescens), cliffrose (Cowania stansburiana= C. mexicana, Purshia mexicana= P. stansburiana), Bigelow's sagebrush (Artemisia bigelowii), sand sagebrush (A. filifolia), littleleaf or threadleaf snakeweed (Gutierrezia microcephala= G. sarothrae microcephala), James' wild-buckwheat (Erigonum jamesii), crispleaf wild-buckwheat (E. corymbosum), and hairy false gold-aster (Chrysopis villosa). There was a tree or large-shrub element represented by a few widely scattered plants of one-seed juniper (Juniperus monosperma). The limited herbaceous component was comprised mostly of blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis).
This scrub was ecotonal and floristically diverse range vegetation with elements from the pinyon pine-juniper woodland represented by cliffrose; skunkbush and sand sagebrush from plains grassland; and fourwing saltbush that is prominent in plains grassland, Great Basin Desert, and Sonoran Desert. In this respect this semidesert shrubland was a composite range type. This composite range plant community had developed in the Navajo section of the Colorado Plateau physiographic province (Fenneman, 1931, ps. 312-317; Thornbury, 1965, ps. 431-434).
Petrified Forest National Park, Apache County, Arizona. Mid-July; early estival aspect. None of the standard units of natural vegetation applied to this range plant community that was within semidesert grassland. In the Clementsian model of monoclimax this scrubland would be postclimax to semidesert grassland.
75. Some of a unique blend- Skunkbush sumac and Bigelow's sagebrush or Bigelow sage on a unique semidesert shrubland within the surrounding semidesert grassland in the Navajo section of the Colorado Plateau, the more eastern extent of the Painted Desert. Other shrub species of this shrub complex included cliffrose, fourwing saltbush, sand sagebrush, hairy false gold-aster, crispleaf wild-buckwheat, Jame's wild-buckwheat, and threadleaf broomweed.
There were some widely scattered cespisote plants of blue grama and even fewer and more widely individuals of one-seed juniper. Clearly a shrubland, and one of a very unique blend of shrub species. Part of the badlands and semidesert grassland complex of the eastern Painted Desert.
Petrified Forest National Park, Apache County, Arizona. Mid-July; early estival aspect. None of the standard units of natural vegetation applied to this range plant community that was within semidesert grassland. In the Clementsian model of monoclimax this scrubland would be postclimax to semidesert grassland.
76. Can't git much sparser- A Painted Desert badlands range plant community that was about as simple and sparse as was possible to be: a grass-dwarf shrub savanna of alkali sacaton (Sporobolus airoides) and mound saltbush (Atriplex obovata). Given aridity (eight to nine inches of average annual precipitation) and harsh edaphic nature of this range site which, based on the soil survey (Soil Conservation Service, 1975) was apparently unnamed and not described.
Petrified Forest National Park, Apache County, Arizona. Mid-July. No units for this range vegetation were published in the standard literature.
Badlands vegetation in the Painted Desert.
Petrified Forest National Park, Apache County, Arizona. Mid-July; early estival aspect. None of the standard units of natural vegetation applied to this range plant community.
Within major land regions there are frequently abrupt and pronounced topographic departures from the prevailing physiography or "lay of the land". These include local changes in landscape such as bluffs, cliffs, deep draws, and natural drainages like arroyos as well as extensive or far-reaching abrupt land surface changes such as escarpments, canyons, and gorges. Such prominent abrupt deviations in land surface, plane topographic distinctions, are especially obvious where vegetation is less dense and/or vistas are larger (eg. grasslands, deserts). Abrupt changes in the land surface of regional (= zonal) climax vegetation (= plant formations) often result in differences in range plant communities within relatively short distances or small areas.
Given the critical importance (hence, attraction) of water to all life, riparian vegetation is perhaps the most conspicuous of these "short-distance" spatial changes between local and regional or zonal vegetation. Vegetation like gallery forest is especially conspicuous in the "sea" of vast grasslands. Another prominent-- though less conspicuous to most human viewers-- topographic departure on the prevailing rolling and, especially, flat land surfaces of grasslands is the geologic feature known as breaks. Breaks (always written and spoken of in the plural) is a general term used to denote a sudden or pronounced change in topography especially as from plains to hilly terrain.
Abrupt changes in land surface features designated as breaks can be local as, for example, one small hill or mesa (or one side or face thereof) or extensive such as an escarpment extending along a geological feature (eg. Missouri Breaks along the Missouri River). Within the Great Plains province there are breaks of varying dimensions and location ranging, again, from relatively small and local to expansive and general within a larger area. In Range Management these breaks-- regardless of spatial scale-- typically designate breaks range sites. In fact, there are several different breaks range sites.
Breaks often (perhaps typically) support potential natural vegetation that is different from that of the surrounding regional climax due to the unique-- in particular, physical and chemical-- features of breaks. The distinctive habitats of breaks can support range vegetation that is either preclimax or postclimax in relation to prevailing zonal vegetation (regional climax) when viewed by monoclimax theory. From perspective of polyclimax theory breaks are edaphic, topographic, etc. climaxes. Recognition of breaks range sites was probably an outgrowth (and acceptance) of the polyclimax view, but breaks can be understood as both pre- and postclimax communities and/or as edaphic or topographic climaxes.
In some instances the different and distinctive breaks range vegetation can be explained relative to fire or grazing. In these instances pyric and zootic impacts have been and still are less influencial than on surrounding vegetation due to an inherent protection. Most species of herbivores (native or domestic) are less apt to frequent the steep land of breaks. Fires are often less apt to burn breaks due to paucity of fine fuels or biomass (this lower productivity in turn a result of less soil water as a consequence of greater rate of runoff and shallower soils). Conversely, vegetation on steep slopes can burn-- when it does burn-- at greater intensity under an upslope head fire. Likewise, when grazing/browsing does occur the range may be harmed to a greater degres by damage to steep slopes and defoliation of plants growing on harsher sites. Either way (or both ways) breaks range plant communities often differ drastically from adjacent vegetation.
This difference is often greater cover, density, etc. of woody plants. Again this may be due partly to protection from, say, fire or, alternatively, disturbance-induced retrogression caused by hotter fires or more grazing/browsing action. In cases of east and, especially, north slopes the habitat, the range site, is more mesic and generally supports greater water-requiring plant species. These tend to be woody species that are deeper-rooted but often at competitive disadvantage to shallower-rooted herbaceous plants that are more efficient at rapid absorption of soil water.
Breaks often serve as reserviors of tree and shrub species whose propagules can invade surrounding vegetation in absence of normal fire regimes (underburning), with grazing damage (overgrazing in particular), under short and intense atmospheric abberations (drought typically being Number One on range), or with major long-term changes including climatic shifts such as global warming (or cooling).
Badlands and canyonlands are some of the larger and better-known examples of land forms having breaks. These often have extensive networks of breaks above a series of valleys and interconnecting channels. The largest of such land forms in the Southern Great Plains is the Caprock Excarpment where the Ogalla Formation-capped High Plains (Staked Plains or Llano Estacado) break off onto the Red Hills (known in Texas as the Rolling Red Plains and in Oklahoma as the Redbeds Plains). This geologic feature or general terrain is the "breaks of the plains" (Fenneman, 1931, p. 28-30; Fenneman, 1938, ps. 606, 618-620)). This large geologic feature includes other range sites besides breaks sites.
Within the Great Plains region there are countless breaks occurring at local scale. Examples of local breaks and those of the Caprock canyonlands were presented below.
77. Plains breaks- Local breaks in overall mixed prairie range in the Rolling Red Plains region. A steep north slope below a grama grass-buffalograss-threeawn mixed prairie supported two distinct range plant communities. Upper slope (above the land slump) was a stand of redberry juniper (Juniperus pinchotii) with an understorey of short and mid-grass species. This shrubland was a downslope extension of mixed prairie range from the upland above. (This Rolling Red Plains mixed prairie vegetation was presented in the Grasslands, Mixed Prairie portion of this publication).
Below the landslide was a species-diverse community that had developed a moist drainage. In the horizonal photograph a southwestern black willow (Salix gooddingii) was growing in far left foreground with scattered skunkbush sumac and young netleaf hackberry (Celtis reticulata) above and to right of the willow. The shrub with twining or twisted aerial branches at right midground was pale honeysuckle (Lonicera albiflora var. dumosa). There was a robust individual of sand bluestem in center foreground accompanied by sand sagebrush. Other grass species included little bluestem, sideoats grama, and plains bristlegrass (Setaria leucopila). The vertical slide displayed in greater detail the center portion of this slope transect. Panicles of a specimen of naturalized Johnsongrass (Sorghum halepense) was visible in extreme left foreground of this second slide which demonstrated-- as was often the case in this publication-- the adaptability of this introduced, often weedy, perennial sorghum.
Dickens County, Texas. August; estival aspect. Localized shrubland range community within FRES No. 38 (Plains Grasslands Ecosystem). Too small to be mapped by Kuchler unit but lower plant community perhaps could be viewed as local variant of K-62 (Bluestem-Grama Prairie). Successional status of juniper-dominated community was uncertain and there seemed no obvious Kuchler unit. Variant of SRM 718 (Mesquite-Grama) or of 727 (Mesquite-Buffalograss) fit juniper shrubland. SAF 66 (Ashe Juniper-Redberry [Pinchot] Juniper). Rough Breaks range site. Southwestern Tablelands- Caprock Canyons, Badlands, and Breaks Ecoregion, 26c (Griffith et al., 2004).
78. Plains breaks- Another "plot" of a north slope Rough Breaks range site below an upland of Rolling Red Plains mixed praire range (this latter presented in Grasslands, Mixed Prairie herein). A redberry juniper-dominated mid-grass and short grass range community grew on the upper reaches of this slope above the slump and eroded portion. The lower plant community had a zone-like arrangement of species with sand sagebrush and lotebush (Ziziphus obtusifolia) in the immediate foreground with a hardy plant of sand bluestem "for good measure". The most common species that formed a large thicket immediately behind the "zone" just described was skunkbush sumac. In the midst of this thicket was a conspicuous forked-trunk mountain mahogany (Cercocarpus montanus), the largest, tallest shrubin right-center foreground. Small patches of sand plum (Prunus gracilis) occurred behind the skunkbush thicket. Upslope, little bluestem, sideoats grama, and plains bristlegrass grew scattered but to large size. Interestingly, there was mesquite at this location.
Dickens County, Texas. August. Estival aspect. Localized shrubland range community within FRES No.38 (Plains Grasslands Ecosystem). Too small to carry Kuchler unit. SAF 66 (Ashe Juniper-Redberry [Pinchot] Juniper). Redberry juniper vriant of SRM 727 (Mesquite-Buffalograss) perhaps most apt for the upper plant community though SRM 718 (Mesquite-Grama) was about as appropriate, except as noted at end of last paragraph there was no mesquite on this local Rough Breaks range site. Southwestern Tablelands- Caprock Canyons, Badlands, and Breaks Ecoregion, 26c (Griffith et al., 2004).
79. Caprock canyonlands- View over Caprock or Llano Estacado Escarpment, "the break of the plains" where the High Plains (= Staked Plains or Llano Estacado) breaks over on the Red Hills (most commonly designated Rolling Red Plains in Texas). Here prominent landscape features include dissected plains, canyon slopes and ridge tops each of which has it's own characteristic plant community. Also visible in this and several of the following slides are the three major geologic formations comprising the High Plains beginning with the upper or most recent: 1) Ogalla, 2) Dockum sandstone groups (Tecovas and Trujillo), and Permian Redbeds (of several formations). It is estimated that this entire time frame spanned from 200 to 300 million years ago. What a memory God must have!
Shrubs in the foreground were honey mesquite while redberry juniper populated canyon sides in midground. Dominant grasses were little bluestem and sideoats grama. This was likely the potential natural vegetation: SRM 718 (Mesquite-Grama). Canyon sides: SAF 66 (Ashe Juniper-Redberry [Pinchot] Juniper). Southwestern Tablelands- Caprock Canyons, Badlands, and Breaks Ecoregion, 26c (Griffith et al., 2004). Caprock Canyons State Park, Briscoe County, Texas. August.
80. Canyonlands range- Climax vegetation on ridge tops and canyon slopes of the Caprock Escarpment. These two views were on edges of ridge tops peering over canyon slopes down into the dissected plains of the break between the High Plains and Red Rolling Plains of the Great Plains physiographic province. The clock of geologic time can be read in these Texas canyonlands or badlands.
Range vegetation (dominance types) on the ridge tops was comprised of sideoats grama, feather dalea (Dalea formosa), redberry juniper, soapweed yucca (Yucca glauca), hairy grama (Bouteloua hirsuta), blue grama (B. gracilis), and silver bluestem (Andropogon saccharoides= Bothriochloa saccharoides). It was designated and mapped by Wester (undated) as the RedberryJuniper-Oak-Feather Dalea-Hairy Grama-Sideoats Grama Community Complex.
In the second slide another dominant range shrub, little sumac (Rhus microphylla) was presented at far left foreground. In this habitat fire frequency was historically low on canyon sides and of low intensity on ridge tops due to obvious limited biomass for fuel and, especially finner fuels for initiation of fire.All these spceies resprout readily even the redberry juniper (sprouting is of course rare in conifers).
Caprock Canyons State Park, Briscoe County, Texas. August. Estival aspect; peak standing crop for mid- and short grasses. FRES and Kuchler designations did not exist for this range vegetation. Although this beautiful-- if relatively unproductive-- landscape was extensive it was smaller than mapping units of standard plant formations. SAF 66 (Ashe Juniper-Redberry [Pinchot] Juniper). SRM rangeland cover type was likely some variant of SRM 718 or 727. Range sites readily discerned were Hardland Slopes on ridge tops and part of upland mixed prairie and Rough Breaks down on canyon slopes below ridge tops. Southwestern Tablelands- Caprock Canyons, Badlands, and Breaks Ecoregion, 26c (Griffith et al., 2004).
81. Sample of canyonlands vegetation- Feather dalea with silver bluestem to it's left and soapweed yucca behind were typical example of species dominant or common on ridge tops of Rolling Red Plains canyonlands. Caprock Canyons State Park, Briscoe County, Texas. August.
82. Feather dalea (Dalea formosa)- One of the dominant species on ridge top positions on Caprock Escarpment. Grass was silver bluestem, a mid-grass species.Caprock Canyons State Park, Briscoe County, Texas. August.
83. Close-up of feather dalea- Leaders and leaves of a dominant shrub of one of several range plant communities growing on the canyonlands of the Caprock Escarpment. Caprock Canyons State Park, Briscoe County, Texas. August.
84. Canyonlands State Grass- Sideoats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula), State Grass of Texas, on a ridge top of the Caprock Escarpment at hard-grain stage. Caprock Canyons State Park, Briscoe County, Texas. August.
85. Littleleaf sumac (Rhus microphylla)- Main branch of a dominant shrub on ridge tops of Lland Estacado (= Caprock) Escarpment canyonlands. This shrub furnishes highly palatable browse. Caprock Canyons State Park, Briscoe County, Texas. August.
86. Branches of littleleaf sumac (Rhus microphylla) in full-fruit- Leaders of littleleaf or desert sumac (first photograph) and details of leaves and fruit of the same (second slide). The fleshy fruit of Rhus species is a drupe: the fruit type in which the outer layer or skin is the exocarp, the fleshy layers are mesocarp, and the bone-like seed coat is the endocarp; endocarp and seed constitute a pyrene (the stone or pit). Hence, drupes are stone fruits or pit fruits (Smith, 1977). This woody species is well-adapted to xeric environments and is widely distributed on harsher habitats such as drier or shallower soils in the Great Plains as well as basins and bajadas of the Chihuhuan Desert. Desert sumac is often common of tobosagrass (Hilaria mutica) swales or "flats" in the semidesert grasslands.
Drupes are sometimes cooked in hot water to make "hillbilly lemonade". Beats a job in the eye, but this author recommends the "real stuff" (or tea or coffee or milk or cold water or ...; you get the picture).
Davis Mountains, Brewster County, Texas. June.
Any spare sperms?- Three views of microstrobilii (microstrobilus, singular) or pollen-bearing (male) cones in red-berry juniper. The first slide is of a long leader (leader= branch, a major limb of the tree in this case) of a male tree loaded with pollen-producing cones. The second slide is a closer-in view of a portion of a leader (branch) with an exceptionally heavy crop of pollen cones on the same tree whose limb was shown in the first slide. The third slide preented pollen-bearing cones and the scaled needles (coniferous leaves) off of the same male tree.
Red-berry juniper is typical of almost all Juniperous species in that it is dioecious with separate male and female plants (each plant producesonly male or only female cones; in other words, each plant is either male or female).
Male cones or microstrobilii (like the thousands seen here) consist of pollen sacs or, in botanical terms, microsporangia (plural; microsporangium, singular). Each microsporangium is borne in a modified conifer leaf known as a microsporophyll (each of these modified leaves can have several microsporangia).
The term strobilus (strobili, plural) is the cone or reproductive structure in Gymnospermae (the conifers). Male cones are smaller than female cones which mature into the well-known (and sometimes quite large or even immense) woody cones (eg. pine cones) or, in case of Juniperus species, the fleshy cones. Thus the male or pollen-producing cone is the microstrobilus.
Pollen from junipers (Juniperus species) can be a major source of allergy problems to people who have allergic reactions to the juniper pollen grains.
Tarleton State University Hunewell Ranch, Erath County, Texas. September.
Fecund female conifer- A female plant shown at two different camera lengths to present habit (first slide) and crown features (second slide) of a red-berry (or redberry) cedar or redberry juniper (Juniperus pinchotii) "loaded" with fleshy seeds or ovuliferous cones. The Juniperus species are dioecious (separate male and female cones on separte plants: male plants and females plants) although there a few Juniperus species in which there are some monecious plants (separte male and female cones on the same plant: not separately sexed plants). J. pinchotii is not one of these monecious species.
The female red-berry juniper presented here had one of the heaviest seed loads this author ever saw. (Regular seedload of this native, sprouting, and--under certain conditions--highly invasive junipers is bad enough.)
Tarleton State University Hunewell Ranch, Erath County, Texas. September.
On just one leader- The terminal (distal) portion of one leader (branch) on the redberry juniper introduced in the two slides immediately above. With each of these fleshy seeds having the potential to produce one red-berry cedar it is no wonder that much of central Texas--both Edwards Plateau as well as parts of the Cross Timbers and Prairies and Rolling plains--have become a "cedar brake". In this rangeman's opinion overgrazing has to be one of the major factors that permitted invasion of this native conifer to brush proportions, but certainly cessation of fire was also a major factor.
The question of anthropogenic (human-caused; man-made) factors in the case of red-berry juniper is complicated by the fact that this is one of the re-sprouting Juniperus species. Even periodic fire, as in prescribed burning for instance, would serve only to reduce cover of established plants of sprouting species (very few plants would be other than topkilled). Of course, mesquite and all the other hardwood (angiosperm) species are species capable of re-sprouting so this capacity to regenerate from perennating parts does not negate role of fire in maintaining grasslands and savannas or deprecate the value of prescribed fire in proper range management.
Tarleton State University Hunewell Ranch, Erath County, Texas. September.
Several shots needed- Redberry juniper is such a noxious range pest that it was important to include enough views of the fleshy seeds (mature female or ovuliferous cones) of this horrid native invader. The fleshy seeds of redberry juniper do--as implied by the adjective "reberry"--turn a rust-red to bright red color at maturity. In the immature stage the fleshy seeds of red-berry cedar change from blue to green to brown depending on environmental conditions. Seeds of redberry juniper in various of these stages of maturity were shown in slides below.
Tarleton State University Hunewell Ranch, Erath County, Texas. September.
134. Leader of redberry (or, red-berry) juniper, Pinchot's juniper, or redberry cedar (Juniperus pinchotii)- Needles and immature fleshy seeds of the redberry juniper. Typically the branches of this Juniperus species are more "scraggly" or have a "skinnier" appearance (ie. appear less "filled out") than Ashe or blue-berry juniper.
The outstanding (outstandlingly bad) feature of Pinchot's juniper from a range management standpoint is that it is one of the few sprouting Juniperus (for that matter, coniderous) species. Natural and prescribed fire keep individuals of this species low and from reaching adult size, but generally (and most unfortunately) do not kill this insidious conifer.
Tarleton State University Hunewell Ranch, Erath County, Texas. September.
Not quite ripe- Needles of immature fleshy cones (fleshy seeds) of red-berry or Pinchot's juniper. Although commonly referred to as a "berry" or "berries", the sexually reproduced product of coniferous species cannot be a berry because coniferous species are gymnosperms (not angiosperms) and produce only naked seeds and not fruit (berry is a fruit type). Instead, these mature female megasporangia are fleshy cones or fleshy seeds.
By whatever name, birds readily eat and disperse the sexual propagule much to consternation of ranchmen, range conservationists, and all manner of rangemen who fight a never-ending war against the invasion of the dreaded, sprouting Juniperus pinchotii in absence of periodic fire and often accompanied with other disturbances ranging from overgrazing to urban sprawl to oil and gas development.
. Tarleton State University Hunewell Ranch, Erath County, Texas. Mid-September; immature seed stage.
135. Needles and mature fleshy seeds of redberry or Pinchot's juniper- The fleshy seeds of red-berry cedar take on a rust or burnt brown color at maturity. These mature "berries" (of course not a berry; not even a fruit) are the source of the more comonly used common name. It should be noted that from this and the preceding slide that redberry juniper has been observed to produce fewer seeds than most other "cedars" or junipers that are found on range such as blueberry, eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana), and western juniper (J. occidentalis). Logically, this reflects the phenomenon of resprouting (asexual reproduction) of redberry juniper.
Tarleton State University Hunewell Ranch, Erath County, Texas. September.
136. Field identification feature of redberry or Pinchot's juniper- In spite of common name designations of blueberry vs. redberry juniper mature fleshy seeds of both of these range-infesting, weedy Juniperus species have brown or dull red coloration. Seed color is meaningless in distinguishing between the sprouting redberry and the nonsprouting blueberry or Ashe juniper. Instead the foolproof feature that can be used to distinguish between species of these brush species is prsence of a flaky white exudate (apparently a form of rosin) on twig stems (typically the more terminal portions of branches) and needles of the sprouting redberry juniper. Examples of such rosin patches or rosin flakes were visible in these two branches.
Tarleton State University Hunewell Ranch, Erath County, Texas. September.
137. Unwanted baby or new bastard on the range- Young seedling of red-berry cedar or juniper growing on local, disturbed microsite in West Cross Timbers of northcentral Texas. This microscene could just as easily have been on the Edwards Plateau, Rolling Red Plains, or High Plains regions. The land surface in the immediate microhabitat around this seedling was mostly bare soil, but the bare area was so small that even a low-intensity surface fire ("light fire") fueled with sparse litter would have killed the seedling. At least the redberry juniper seedling would have been top-killed. It was not determined if seedlings of J. pinchotii at earlier stages of development possess ability to sprout back (resprout) from the embryonic root crown.
Either way, these two views of a redberry juniper seedling showed viewers the results of sexual reproduction by redberry juniper on deteriorated rane.
Tarleton State University Hunewell Ranch, Erath County, Texas. Mid-April; multi-leaf seedling stage.
A climax range plant community dominated by sand post oak (Quercus margarettiae= Q. margarettae= Q. Margaretta= Quercus stellata var. margarettiae), a stoloniferous/rhizomatous of large shrub to small tree dimensions was included in both Miscellaneous Scrubland= Miscellaneous Shrubland and Miscellaneous Forest chapters herein because this potential natural vegetation could rationally be regarded as either a range cover type of either 1) shrubland or 2) scrub (=dwarf= pygmy) forest.
87. Sandy exterior- Part of perimeter of a climax hardwood scrub or scrub forest known by local folk as "sandrough" or "sandtangle". Ths predominantly woody range vegettion develops on deep, sandy soil. Sandrough is a classic example of the concept of postclimax vegetation proposed by F.E. Clements. This shrubland occurrs in patches--both large and small--in the vegetational mosaic of Grand Prairie and West Cross Timbers. It is probably most correctly interpreted as a scrub forest form of Cross Timbers.
The defining species of sandtangle is a species of scrub oak (some individuals grow to size of small or, rarely, medium-sized trees) known by such common names as sand post oak, dwarf post oak, scrub post oak, Drumond's oak, runner oak, or Margarette oak. Oaks in this group are currently given their own species, Quercus margarettiae. In this regard see taxonomic note immediately below. Most of the trees, including largest ones, seen in this "photographic forest bisect" were sand post oak or scrub post oak (or, sometimes, M[m]argarete oak).
Other woody species in this photograph included blackjack oak (Q. marilandica) and sugarberry (Celtus laevigata), although only a few trees of these two species (especially of blackjack oak) were present, common or saw greenbriar (Smilax bona-nox), lime prickly-ash or tickle-tongue (Zanthoxylum hirsutmm), rusty or southern blackhaw (Virburnum rufidulum), Drummond's or roughleaf dogwood (Cornus drummondii), and eastern or devil's-tongue pricklypear (Opuntia humifusa). Herbaceous plants included sand lovegrass (Eragrostis trichoides), heart-sepal wild buckwheat (Eriogonum multiflorum), and slender flat-sedge or slender umbrella-sedge (Cyperus lupulinus). Obviously, herbaceous species were not visible at this camera distance, but they were present.
Sand or dwarf post oak sometimes grows to small (or, more rarely, meium)-tree size, but this species is strongly rhizomatious (or, less frequently, stoloniferous) so that the individual trunks or boles are, in reality, shoots (clonal units) of genetically distinct individuals. The source or orgin of most of these various shoots or trunks ("trees") cannot be determined with any degree of accuracy in the field. Furthermore, the size of these clonal shoots is most commonly that of large shrubs and not "regular trees"; specifically, most are under 12 to 15 feet in height. A large "plant" (clonal unit) of over 20 feet was rare. This height along with the clonal feature and formation of colonies) appeared to this worker to better fit the definition of shrub rather than tree as proviced by the Society of American Foresters (Helms, 1998) which specified a minimum height of 15 feet and the Society for Range Management (Bedell, 1998) which explained that shrubs produced "several basal shoots instead of a single bole". Admittedly, however, this distinction is open to interpretation and has a degree of unavoidable ambiguity.
Nonetheless in the judgment of this author native vegetation dominated and defined by dwarf or scrub post oak was better regarded as scrub or shrubland than as a form of pygmy forest or a grove of midget trees.
Erath County, Texas. Mid-October, autumnal aspect. Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem), K-75 (Cross Timbers), but it is a shrub form of it. No SRM type description; an edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak). Deep Sand range site. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut Plain Cross Timbers Ecoregion, 29e (Griffith et al., 2004).
Taxonomic note translated to community classification: Sand post oak, dwarf post oak, scrub post oak, Drumond's oak, runner oak or M(m)argarete oak has been treated variously as Quercus stellata var. margarettiae (Sargent 1933, p.295; Vines, 1960, p. 155), Q. margarettiae (Small, 1933, p. 424; Muller, 1951, ps. 49-51; Correll and Johnston, 1979, p. 477; Diggs et al., 1999, p. 716). At one time, sand or scrub post oak was even lumped in with Q. drummondii (Diggs et al., 1999, p. 716). Dwarf post oak, or runner oak is quite likely the most complex and confusing Querus species in Texas where Q. margarettiae resembles Q. drummondii and there are Q. margaretta X Q. stellata hybrids as well as all manner of intergrades between these.
Muller (1951, p. 52) stated: "No greater taxonomic and nomenclatorial puzzles were encountered in this study than those centering about Quercus stellata, Q. Margaretta, and Q. drummondii. Between the easily separated extremes of Q. stellata and Q. Margaretta there exist a greater number of intermediate forms representing fairly frequent hybridization. In spite of this the two species have maintained themselves abundantly distinct by virtue of the close confinement of Q. Margaretta to deep sands and of Q. stellata to rocky or sandy soils containing clay."
There is even confusion and controversy over the correct spelling of the specific epithet of this species. Muller (1951) remains the encyclopedic authority on the Quercus species of Texas, and he (Mueller, 1951, ps. 49-51) spelled the epithetic epithet, Margaretta. By contrast (and way of confusion) Diggs et al. (1999, p.716), the floral authority for northcentral Texas, spelled the specific epithet, margarettiae.
88. Sandy and scrubby- Exterior (outer edge) of a "sandrough" or "sandtangle" shrubland on deep sand in northcentral Texas. This was a "closer-up-to-it" view of the same perimeter of the tract of scrubland featured immediately above and below this slide-caption set. Species visible in this slide (at least when projected) were both sand post oak and blackjack oak, saw or common greenbriar, lime prickly-ash or tooth-ache bush, devil's-tongue pricklypear, Ashe or post juniper (Juniperus ashei) and heart-sepal wild buckwheat.
Presence of Ashe or post juniper and devil's-tongue pricklypear was probably explained by absence of fire from this scrubland range for at least a half century (and almost assurredly much longer).
Erath County, Texas. Mid-October, autumnal aspect. Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem), K-75 (Cross Timbers), but it is a shrub form of it. No SRM type description; an edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak). Deep Sand range site.. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut Plain Cross Timbers Ecoregion, 29e (Griffith et al., 2004).
89. More of a sandy, scrubby exterior- Outer edge of a "sandtangle" or "sandrough" scrub climax community on deep sand in northecentral Texas. In addition to the major shrublands of coastal and mountain chaparral and deserts there are numerous local kinds of vegetation dominated by and made up largely of shrubs due to unique habitat features like soil, topography, water table, and so on. Riparian vegetation falls into this category as does that of deep sand or water drainage like seeps that support vegetation more mesic than that of the region in which it occurs. Ecologists like Fredric Clements labeled such vegetation as postclimax. An example of a local postclimax range vegetation type in the Texas Cross Timbers is sandrough or sandtangle, stunted, or dwarf forms of post oak, blackjack oak, sugarberry with such associates as common or saw greenbriar and lime prickly ash, tickletongue, or toothache-tree.
There were a few, rather large individuals of sand lovegrass.
The dominant--in fact, the defining species species is sand or scrub post oak, runner oak, or Margarete oak. See again, taxonomic note.
Here sandrough is growing on a Deep Sand range site. Erath County, Texas. October, autumnal aspect. Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem), K-75 (Cross Timbers), but it is a shrub form of it. No SRM type description; an edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak). Deep Sand range site. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut Plain Cross Timbers Ecoregion, 29e (Griffith et al., 2004).
90. Sanded "purty bad"- Exterior of a sandtangle range in the West Cross Timbers of northcentral Texas. The local dominant on the outer edge of the climax scrubland range community was mustang grape (Vitis mustangensis) with saw or common greenbriar being the associate liana. Sand or scrub post oak was also present (foreground of upper right corner and background of upper left corner) as was roughleaf dogwood, this latter species being intermixed with mustang grape. Leaves of mustang grape, saw greenbriar, and roughleaf dogwood were all tattered by blowing sand in an Extreme Drought at end of the warm growing season.
As a general rule, mustang grape and roughleaf dogwood occur as part of the sandrough range vegetation only along the exterior. This phenomenon appeared to be light-related. In the sandrough interior there is generally rather dense shade and limited light penetration through to lower levels of range vegetation. Leaves are much more apt to get "sand-blasted" on the perimeter of sandrough range.
Erath County, Texas. October, autumnal aspect. Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem), K-75 (Cross Timbers), but it is a shrub form of it. No SRM type description; an edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak). Deep Sand range site. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut Plain Cross Timbers Ecoregion, 29e (Griffith et al., 2004).
91. Climax not brush- Although frequently misinterpreted as a woody invasion of deteriorated range, sandrough or sandtangle is an edaphic climax. Thus while it is a minor range type it provides an example of the variation in vegetation that exist within regional or zonal scale climaxes. It is but one example of the sort of plant community that fueled the debate between monoclimax and polyclimax theories of vegetation. Of the few herbaceous understory species in sandrough, sand lovegrass is dominant.
Erath County, Texas. October, autumnal aspect. Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem). Scrub variant in K-75 (Cross Timbers). Edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak) Deep Sand range site. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut Plain Cross Timbers Ecoregion, 29e (Griffith et al., 2004).
92. Sandy stand- Satand of sandy post oak, scrub post oak, or Margarete oak at endge of a sandrough scrub range in the West Cross Timbers of northcentral Texas. It was likely tht the formost (center foreground) three shoots belonged to the same genetic individual (genotype). The clonal nature of this species was explained below. There was almost no understorey or herbceous species in the view seen here, but saw greenbriar was everywhere.
Erath County, Texas. October, autumnal aspect. Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem). Scrub variant in K-75 (Cross Timbers). Edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak). Deep Sand range site. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut Plain Cross Timbers Ecoregion, 29e (Griffith et al., 2004).
93. Inside sandrough or sandtangle- Interior of a sandrough dominated by post with some blackjack oak as minor associate. Even deep in interior of this edphic climax scrubland there are frequently herbaceous species including sand lovegrass (Eragrostis trichoides), and little bluestem. A dominant forb was spiderwort (Tradescantia subacaulis). Also present, especially on primeter, were mustang grape and rough-leaf dogwood.
Erath County, Texas. April, vernal aspect. Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem). Scrub vriant of K-75 (Cross Timbers). Edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak). Deep Sand range site. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut PlainCross Timbers Ecoregion 29 e (Griffith et al., 2004).
94. Impenetrable core- Deep interior of a sandrough scrubland range in West Cross Timbers. This "photplot" featured a woody species that is fairly uncommon to the West Cross Timbers: American beautyberry (Callicarpa amricana), "stitched completely up" as it were with the ever-present saw or common greenbriar. American beautyberry is much more at home in the sandy forests of the Pineywoods of east Texas, but in the mesic, deep sand habitat of the postclimax sandtangle vegetation American beautyberry frequently finds a home.
Erath County, Texas. April, vernal aspect. Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem). Scrub vriant of K-75 (Cross Timbers). Edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak). Deep Sand range site. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut PlainCross Timbers Ecoregion 29 e (Griffith et al., 2004).
95. Herbaceous spot- At the outer edge of a sandtange scrubland range community numerous large plants of sand lovegrass formed a local herbaceous community, a consociation (or, perhaps more precisely, a population) with only a few plants of heart-sepal wild buckwheat. Shade in the background of this "photoplot" was typical of sandtangle scrub range. There was typically only limited development of of lower layers--herbaceous or woody--in sandrough shrubland (other than lower shoots of saw greenbriar of course).
Erath County, Texas. October, autumnal aspect. Grain-ripe phenological stage of sand lovegrass. Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem). Scrub variant in K-75 (Cross Timbers). Edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak) Deep Sand range site. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut Plain Cross Timbers Ecoregion, 29e (Griffith et al., 2004).
96. A study in clumps- Two clumps of sand, scrub, or dwarf post oak or Margarete oak that appeared to be two modules or clonal units each of one genetic individual (ie. units of offshoots or ramets of a genet; two genets, one in each photograph). It was explained above that this taxonomic variety, Quercus stellata var. margarettiae (Sargent 1933, p.295; Vines, 1960, p. 155), or species, Q. margarettiae (Small, 1933, p. 424; Muller, 1951, ps. 49-51; Correll and Johnston, 1979, p. 477; Diggs et al., 1999, p. 716) had been little studied (barely described as matter of fact) yet possessed diverse morphology and a predominant asexual mode of reproduction.
Both of these clonal clumps of shoots had seedling-sized, new offshoots or clonal shoots arising from adult horizontal shoots or or, more commonly, immediately beneath the soil surface. (Examples of some aboveground or surficial shoots were presented ahortly below.) Thus, asexual reproduction was on-going. Saw greenbriar, which also had active asexual reproduction, was the associate species in this sandrough scrubland and was also present in these two "photoplots".
s. Erath County, Texas. Late and Mid-October; first and second slide, respectively Entering early stage of annual dormancy.
97. Old-growth scrub- Two large (comparatively speaking) shoots of sand, dwarf, or scrub post oak growing on a Quercus margarettiae-Smilax bona-nox habitat type known by local folk as a sandrough or sandtangle in the West cross Timbers of northcentral Texas. These tree-sized individuals, which were as large as this photographer encountered, were senescing (ie. slowly dying as they neared completion of their life cycle).
It was not known whether these two trunks of about the same size were two trees (two genotypes) or two shoots of the same tree (one genotype). The light-shaded brown on the right trunk was dead lichen (live lichen was below the dead) and not a fungal disease.
Erath County, Texas. Late October; entering early stage of annual dormancy.
98. Modular units- Two groups of shoots (lower trunks thereof) of sand, scrub, or dwarf post oak or Margarete oak that were comprised of or modules, offshoots, or clones (each shoot a clone or offshoot) of the same genetic individual (genotype). Each shoot in both of these modular or clonal units was a ramet of the original genetic (the genotype). This is the typical growth or asexual regeneration pattern of this species.
Offshoots or clonal shoots arise from horizontal rootstocks most of which are subterranean while others lie partially exposed or raised above the upper soil (ground) surface. This was visible in the first of these two slides (and numerous other photographs presented immediately below). It could not be determined if the exposed horizontal shoots had naturally grown upward from the soil ("pushed" above ground level) or if these rootstocks had been exposed due to soil loss by erosion.
Shoots of these two modules (ramets of a single genet or genotype) were accompanied by even more clonal shoots of saw greenbriar which arise from globular rhizomes or slender subterranean shoots coming off of these roughly spherical rhizomes. Asexual reproduction is the" order of the day" in this scrub post oak-saw greenbriar habitat type known locally as sandtangle or sandrough.
It was not known if the proper designation of these horizontal shoots was rhizome (belowground shoots) or stolon (aboveground horizontl shoots), but the former seemed most appropriate gievn that most such rootstocks remained belowground or subterranean. (See immediately below, and no pun intended.)
Early November; entering initial stage of annual dormancy (onset of leaf fall).
99. Stolen identity- Four specimens (four distinct plants) of sand, scrub, or dwarf post oak or Margarete oak with horizontal shoots that were growing (protruded) above ground level (higher than the soil surface). It was explained in the immediately preceding slide-caption set that it could not be determined if these horizontal shoots were woody rootstocks (rhizomes) or, alternatively, stolons which are aboveground. While the four examples presented here were aboveground it could not be determined if this was the result of rhizomes (subterrnean horizsontal shoots) growing partly above the soil surface (or if soil loss by erosion--if any such occurred--resulted in exposure of rhizomes) or, alternatively, if these were aboveground horizontal shoots that would, by definition, be stolons.
Sargent (1933, p. 295), in what (though dated) is still the definitive encyclopedia of North American trees, described this shrub formof post oak as Quercus stellata var. Margaretta f. stolonifera which forms "broad thickets by stoloniferous shoots". Gleason and Cronquist (1991, p. 85) described Q. margaretta as "spreading underground and becoming colonial". Muller (1951, p. 50) did not describe the stoloniferous or rhizomatous morphology of Q. margaretta, but he showed the vernacular name as "runner oak".
Whatever the technical designation of such horizontal shoots the relevant fact is that many, if not most, shoots (trunks plus crowns) of sand, scrub, or dwarf post oak are clones, offshoots, or modules in the same fashion as such bettter known woody species as quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides), black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia), some plums (Prunus spp.), certain willows (Salix.spp.).
In this context, sand post oak stands are to a some extent clonal groves. Likewise, saw greenbriar is a highly clonal woody vine. Sandrough or sandtangle scrub is a range plant community that developed around a "botanical nucleus" of asexually regenerating shrubs or, in a few instances, small to even medium-sized trees. Finally, students were reminded that roughleaf or Drummond's dogwood was also a thicket-forming (from rhizomes or woody rootstocks). Sandrough is to a large degree a shrubland of modular species.
Erath County, Texas.Early November (first and second slides), late October (third and fourth slides) Phenology: early stages of annual dormancy with onset of leaf shedding in first two slides.
100. Springtime in sandrough- Young, immediate pre-bloom catkins and "fox ear"-sized new leaves of sand post or margaretta oak on deep sand in the Western Cross Timbers. The climax renge vegetation that was dominated by sand post oak was called "sandrough" or "sandtangle" by local folks.
Erath County, Texas. Early April; developing catkins and this year's leaves.
101. Growing and sexually active- Early growth (extension of internode) of a new leader and developing female catkins of sand post or margaretta oak in the West Cross Timbers.
Erath County, Texas. Early April.
102. Sand Gents- Male catkins of sand post or margaretta oak on a deep sand habitat in the West Cross Timbers.
Erath County, Texas. Early April; fullly developed catkins.
103. Sand Ladies- Female catkins of sand post or margaretta oak on a deep sand habitat in the West Cross Timbers.
Erath County, Texas. Early April; fullly developed catkins.
104. Still not green- Developing new leaves and senescing catkins of sand post oak or margaretta oak in a dwarf forest or shrubland (depending on interpretation) of deep sand-soil in the West Cross Timbers of northcentral Texas. These still-baby leaves had not yet attained their fully grown, mature dark green color, but had the yellowish-green characteristic of this stage or point of leaf development. The youngest and smallest leaves are a dark pink or reddish color while the living catkins are a mixture of green, yellow and tan coloration (see immediately preceding four slide/caption sets). As leaves get older they progress through a series of color shade changes until they achieve a dark, almost burnished, green cast. Then it autumn leaves turnvarious light yellow or orange color (see above photographs).
Catkins in the first of these two shots were senescing (dying having "finished their business" while catkins in the second or lower slide were still alive with the "living green" coloration.
Erath County, Texas. Early April; fullly developed to dying catkins and still young (immature) leaves.
105. Corned clusters- Short shoots of sand or scrub post oak or, also, Margarete oak that was the dominant species of a scrub range type known as sandrough. Short shoots of scrub post oak have a whorled cluster of leaves at their "tip" (the terminal end). If these short shoots develop into sexual short shoots, acorns are borne at this tip (although these nuts can sometimes fail to develop into mature fruit). Acorns can be borne singly or in groups. A terminal bud or, even, several terminal buds sometimes also form at the terminus or apex ("tip")of a short shoot, but leaves and fruit formation are the characteristic features at apex of short shoots. By contrast, long shoots terminate ("end") in a terminal bud typically without fruit or developed leaves during the season (year) of terminal bud formation.
A detailed, readily read explanation of long and short shoots of woody plants was provided by Dahl and Hyder (in Sosebee, 1977, ps. 272-276).
Erath County, Texas. Mid-October; fruit-ripe stage of phenology.
106. More sand than scrub- Three examples of acorns produced and borne at apex of short shoots of sand or scrub post oak (known also as Margarete oak), the dominant species of a shrubland range type known as sandrough or sandtangle. Several buds were on the tips of the three sexual short shoots shown here, but these were not the typical preformed terminal bud of long shoots (Dahl and Hyder in Sosebee [1977, ps. 272-275]).
The sandpaper-like pubescent surface of leaves of sand, scrub, or dwarf post oak was visible in the first two of these slides as well as the three slides of the immediately preceding slide-caption set and in the single slide in the immediately following slide. This pubescent leaf surfaace was noted in such standard taxonomic treatments as Small (1933, p. 424), Sargent (1933, p. 295), Muller (1951, p.50), and Diggs et al. (1999, p.712). Gleason and Cronquist (1991, p. 84) described this pubescence as consiting of "stipitate, few-branched hairs" There is considerable varition in leaves of A. margaretta (also spelled Q. margarettiae) though not generally as much as in Q. stellata even when many of the forms of Q. stellata are elevated to their own species as, for example, Q. margaretta (see Muller, 1951, passim for Texas specimens).
Erath County, Texas. Mid-October; fruit-ripe stage of phenology.
107. Nothin' scrub with this mast- Several acorns of sand or scrub post oak with the actual nut separated from the cup that enclosed part of the attachment end of the nut. Sand post oak or M(m)argarete oak is in the white oak group (subgenus Leucobalanus of genus Quercus). Acorns of white oaks mature in one year in contrast to the two period of acorn development in the red oaks. Thus, white oak species like sand post oak produce more regular crops of mast than the red oak species.
This mast crop is one of the important dietary components of range animals including wild turkeys, coons, and cattle (and, unfortunately, feral hogs).
Erath County, Texas. Mid-October; fruit-ripe stage of phenology.
108. Herbaceous dominant of sandrough- In the outside fencerow of a "santangle" of dwarf or sand post oak and fiddleleaf greenbrier sand lovegrass (Eragrostis trichoides) made a "last stand" where it was protected from cattle. Sand lovegrass was, without doubt, the dominant grass of this dwarf forest (or depending on perwpective) scrubland.
Sand lovegrass is a decreaser on all major range sites on which it occurs. It is extremely palatable , especially to cattle and horses, and was able to persist in this small relict stand where cattle on an adjoining sandrough range has eliminated most plants of sand lovegrass in the sporadic herbaceous understorey.
Erath County, Texas. Early April.
109. Sand lovegrass (Eragrostis trichoides) on a Cross Timbers sand rough- This is the climax dominant grass on the deep sandy soils that support the scrub oak form of Cross Timbers or, more precisely,. the deep sand oak shrubland of the Texas Cross Timbers and Prairies vegetational area. As is typical for plants adapted to harsh habitats, sand lovegrass is actually a delicate species. It can thrive in severe environments, but is very susceptible to abnormal stress such as improper defoliation (overuse or even heavy use during early growth).
Erath County, Texas. October. Deep Sand range site (sand rough).
110. Flowering shoots of sand lovegrass- The large, showy inflorescence of a climax understorey species on sites of deeper sands such as sand rough. Sand lovegrass grows most abundantly in well-lite natural openings in the oak scrub. It is a satisfactory sand-binding species but is quickly grazed out under excessive stocking rates. Sand lovegrass is an "ice cream species" on range habitats like this sand rough (Deep Sand range site). Erath County, Texas. October.
111. Panicles of of sand lovegrass- The flower clusters of sand lovegrass often make up over half of it's total shoot length. Sand lovegrass is one of the most showy plants that can be used as an ornamental when landscaping with native species. To the point of this discussion, sand lovegrass is quite sensitive to improper grazing (namely overuse) and it's common occurrence on ranges such as those of Cross Timbers vegetation indicates careful management and concerned husbancry (or protection from grazing).
Tarleton State University Hunewell Ranch. Erath County, Texas. October (at anthesis stage).
112. Spikelets on sandstone- Tiny spikelets of sand lovegrass lying against the parent material of Cross Timbers soils. Sand lovegrass usually has four to 18 florets (Gould, 1975, p. 185). These spikelets were gathered from the plants shown in the preceding slide.
Bosque River, Erath County, Texas. October, grain-ripe stage.
113. Rosetted and fascicled foliage on the floor- Two plants (one in each of two photographs) of Lindheimer's panicgrass, Lindheimer's rosettegrass, Lindheimer's rosette panicgrass (Panicum lindheimeri= P. acuminatum var. Lindheimeri= Dichenthium acuminatum subsp. lindheimeri) on the floor of a Quercus margarettiae-Smilax bona nox habitat type, a scrubland known locally as sandrough or sandtangle. Foliar clusters of these plants at this season were both the basal rosette and autumnal-phase fascicles. The basal rosette was visible clearly at right of the second slide (and in the first slide of the next or immediately following slide-caption set).
The rosette panicgrasses are quite distinctive from the non-rosette Panicum species. The rosette Panicum species are cool-season species that have the C3 photosynthetic pathway. Based on the rosette morphological feature Hitchcock and Chase (1950, ps. 627, 638-642) recognized and distinguished the rosette panicums as a subgenus designated Dichanthelium. Subsequently, various agrostologists--largely led by Gould (1975, ps. 477-498) and, later, bolstered by cladistic studies--elevated subgenus Dichanthelium to genus Dichanthelium. Such treatments included the cladistic-crazed Barkworth et al. (2003, ps. 406-450) and Gould's protégé, Shaw (2012, ps. 390-418). Other agrostologists including Texas-based workers (Diggs et al., 1999, ps. 1291-1302) and the widely respected Gleason and Cronquist (1991, ps. 796-806) retained Dichanthelium as a subgenus (meaning they rejected Dichanthelium as a genus-level taxon, and as being part of the binominal) thereby leaving Panicum as the nomenclatural unit.
To further complicate the matter of the Dichanthelium taxon (genus or subgenus), according to Barkworth et al. (2003.p. 358) not all species included in the Dichanthelium genus have the rosette of basal leaves. In the key provided by Barkworth et al. (2003, p. 358) some Dichantheliumnot species do not have differing morphology between basal leaves and those produced on upper shoots (cauline leaves). Instead, some Dichanthelium species had to be distinguished from Panicum species based on whether panicles appeared by late spring (Dichanthelium) or by mid-summer (Panicum). Such a distinction could be readily regarded as arbitrarry and based on taxonomic arguments grounded on flimsy--if not fabricated (prejudically selected to justify a pre-determined distinction)--botanical facts (general dates of flowering were correct). Arguments for or against elevating Dichanthelium to a separate genus (rather than retention as subgenus) depend on "cherry picked"-criteria used as evidence for phylogeny (phylogenetic relatedness; systematics as to evolutionary origins).
The author of Range Types rejected cladistics and retained the traditional genus, Panicum for the rosette panicgrasses, but did offer a discussion and cited the most rleevant references.
There may well always be controvesy regarding nomenclature and taxonomy of the rosette panicgrass species of which there are as many as there are imaginative ways to 'split hairs" (in cases of some pubescence features almost literally) among taxonomic splitters. In Flora of Northcentral Texas Diggs et al.(1999, ps.1293-1294) recognized (listed and described) fifteen species of rosette panicgrasses and three varieties of P. acuminatum. These latter varieties have been interpreted as separate species by various taxonomists.
r- Erath County, Texas. Early November; complete vegetative development of these shoot units.
114. Rosettes and fascicles or upper and lower shoot-outs- Entire shoot (first slide) and upper shoot only (second slide) of Lindheimer's rosettegrass, Lindheimer's panicgrass, or Lindheimer's rosette panicgrass growing on the floor of a sand post oak-saw greenbriar shrubland ("sandrough" or "sandtangle") in the West Cross Timbers. The example presented in the first slide both the tuft or rosette of basal leaves (left) and the upper cluster of leaves known as a fascicle (right) whereas the upper shoot in the second slide had two fascicles.
Lindheimer's rosette panicgrass is one of many species of panicoid grass (subfamily, Panicoideae; tribe, Paniceae) the shoots of which consist of 1) a rosette of basal leaves that develop during the cool-growing season and 2) an upper shoot with clusters of short leaves out which develops the panicle this unit knonw as a fascicle. Most rosette panicgrasses produce both vernal and autumnal phases of fascicles which have different morphological features. Some dichotomous keys to the rosettegrasses or rosette panicgrasses include both spring and autumn phases while others include only one phase. The flora of northcentral Texas (Diggs et al. 1999, ps. 1291-1302) included only spring fascicles (vernal phase).
Even without differences between spring and fall fascicles the rosette panicgrass are very problematic and their taxonomic treatment controversial. The rosette-grasses (as these rosette-producing panicgrasses are sometimes called) were included in the Dichanthelium subgenus of Panicum by Hitchcock and Chase (1950, ps. 627, 638-642). Later, Gould (1975, ps. ps. 477-498) elevated Dichanthelium to genus status and his intrepretation was adopted in some agrostologiscal treatments including the cladistic-based arrangement in Barkworth et al. (2003, ps. 406-450) and by Gould's student, Shaw (2012, ps. 390-418).
Shaw (2012, p. 394) cited work stating that Dichenthium acuminatum was the most problematic species in the Dichenthium genus due to extreme polymorphic variability. Smaller plants of Lindheimer's rosettegrass often produce only one shoot whereas larger individuals have been found to produce from three to seven shoots arising from the basal rosette (R.E. Rosiere, personal observation).
White-haired panic, the native grass and the herbaceous species with greatest cover in these dwarf forest tracts, apparently has a pattern or condition of genetic, morphological, and taxonomic variation that is similar to that of sand post oak and dwarf conifer species found on harsh, infertile soils. Taxonomic interpretation of white-haired panic has varied among agrostological authorities (Silveus, 1933; Correll and Johnston, 1979, Gould, 1975; Hignight et al., 1988; Diggs et al., 1999; Feckman and Lelong, 2003, Shaw, 2012) at levels of genus, species, subspecies, and variety. White-haired panic was designated by numerous scientific names including Panicum acuminatum var. villosum, P. villosissimum, P. lanuginosum in part, P. ovale var. villosissimum, Dichanthelium villosum, D. acuminatum var. villosum, and D. lanuginosum var. villosissimum. Intergradation and hybridization among subspecies and varieties is widespread within the Panicum or Dichanthelium taxon resulting in morphological diversity and taxonomic difficulty (Gould and Clark, 1978; Feckman and Lelong, 2003; Shaw, 2012). Lelong (1984) described eight taxonomic varieties within the polymorphic Panicum acuminatum complex which he described as the "most troublesome" species in the Panicum genus. Even with such varietal diversity in P. acuminatum, Lelong (1984) departed from the treatment by Gould and Clark (1978) and interpreted P. acuminatum var. villosum as a variety of the morphologically similar P. ovale (= P. ovale var. villosum) which had been recognized by Hitchcock and Chase (1950) at the species level as P. villosissimum as was P. ovale which Gould and Clark (1978) recognized as Dichanthelium ovale. For this taxon in the Cross Timbers of Texas (Diggs et al., 1999) used P. acuminatum var.villosissimum while Shaw (2012) gave D. ovale var. villosissimum.
Erath County, Texas. Early November; complete vegetative development of these shoot units.
115. A fascicle of fascicles- Three progressively closer-in and more detailed views of an autumn phase fascicle of Lindheimer's rosette panicgrass that grew on a sandrough shrubland, a sand or scrub post oak-saw green briar habitat type, in the West Cross Timbers of northcentral Texas. Fascicle was defined generally by Diggs et al. (1999, p. 1436) as "a condensed or close bundle or cluster", but Hitchcock and Chase (1950, p.990) after providing the generic "little bundle or cluster" went on to specify "clustered leaves, branches of a panicle, and spikes or racemes on an axis".
The typical fascicle of Lindheimer's rosettegrass is actually a fascicles of fascicles. There are several clusters each of which bears a panicle so that the entire unit is a collection of small fascicles (most are complete with a panicle) forming a larger, denser, collective bundle (ie. a "bundle of bundles" or "cluster of clusters"). This specimen had three fascicles within the overall fascicle or three sub-fascicular units with the entire bundle or cluster. Eaach of these three units or smaller sub-fascicular parts had a panicle (so a "panicle of panicles" as well as "a fascicle orf fascicles". Hence, a repeating pattern of shoot, including inflorescence, development. Furthermore, there were frequently two to four such "fascicles of fascicles" on a single shoot of Lindheimer's rosette panicgrass, and three or more shoots per individual plant of this rosette-forming Panicum species. Net result was quite a number of grains (caryopses) produced per small plant of Lindheimer's rosette panicgrass.
Erath County, Texas. Early November; complete vegetative development of these shoot units.
Dwellers of deep sand- Purple sandgrass, Texas bullnettle (Cniolus texanus), slender snakecotton (Froelichia gracilis), and heart-sepal wild-buckwheat (Eriogonum multiflorum) as local members of the herbaceous understorey at edge of a "sand roughscrubland dominated by sand post oakin the Western Cross Timbers.
Eastland County, Texas. Mid-October; early autumnal aspect.
116. Sand-adapted annual- Purple sand grass (Triplasis purpurea) is a native, annual, warm-season (tribe, Eragrostiteae) grass that, as implied by its common name, is best adapted to deep-sand habitats and locally disturbed areas. This smallish, cespitose (tufted or bunched) grass prefers deep sand, especially along margins of forest or in forests of relatively open composition. It is also adapted to disturbed areas of the Cross Timbers and is generally uncommon, other than locally. The dwarf forest or shrubland of "sandrough" is ideal habitat for this tufted yet sprawing species. In fact, purple sand grass is a good indicator species--though not exclusively so by any means--of sand post oak-dominated vegetation.
The first of these two photographs showed six rather distinct plants on the recent clearing of a powerline corridor. The second slide presented a single plant on the new clearing. Both images were top-down photographs of purple sand grass to show its rather prostrate and sprawing habit.
Erath County, Texas. Early October; mature plants with ripening grain and approaching end of their life cycle.
117. Stand-alone sandy characters- Two large specimens of purple sand grass growing on a power line corridor at edge of a sandrough range community in the West Cross Timbers. The first slide ws taken in mid-morning under fairly heavy cloud cover whereas the second slide was taken in mid-afternoon under a cloudless sky. The second slide includes a tiny though mature plant of purple sand grass to immediate left of the regular-sized mature plant.
Purple sand grass is not particularly palatable, but this species is extremely valuable in providing protection against accelerated soil erosion, both of wind- and water-induced forms.
Erath County, Texas. Early October; mature plants with ripening grain and approaching end of their life cycle.
118. Up close and personal- Two mature plants of the native, tufted, annual grass called purple sand grass growing in a "sandtangle" dwarf forest of sand shrubland in the West Cross Timbers of northcentral Texas.
Eastland County, Texas. Early October; approaching final stages of plant maturity with ripening grain.
119. Almost as red as purple- A close-in, side view of purple sand grass to show the high density of tillers, a characteristic of this native, annual species. Plant base and basal parts of shoots of a robust plant. This specimen was growing at edges of a power line adjoining a climax sand post oak.
Erath County, Texas. Early October; mature plants with ripening grain and approaching end of their life cycle.
120. Showy shoots- Details, including unique coloration of shoots and their prostrate and ascending habit, of purple sand grass. The upper of these slides was a top-down view into the center of the tufted dense congregation of tillers. The lower photograph included portions of several shoots so as to present leaf blade, leaf sheath, loeaf axils, and portions of culm.
This was another plant that grew at adjoining edge of a power line clearing and a climax range plant community dominated by sand post oak and fiddleleaf or sawtooth greenbrier, potential natural vegetation known locally as "sandrough" or "sandtangle".
Erath County, Texas. Early October; mature plants approaching end of their life cycle.
121. Get the general picture- Spikelets of sand grass, a native annual adapted to deep sand and growing on the sandrough scrubland or dwarf forest dominated by sand post oak.
Erath County, Texas. Mid-October; sort- to hard-dough phenological stage.
122. Arrow-feathered- Inflorescences of arrowfeather threeawn (Aristida purpurascens) lying on decomposing, downed trunk of sand post or margarette oak in a deep-sand scrub forest or shrubland dominated by this woody species. Arrowfeather threeawn was very sparse in the understorey of this range plant community, but it served as an indicator species of a more-or-less closed woody canopy. (Arrowfeather threeawn is one of the few Aristida species in the Cross Timbers and Prairie area of northcentral Texas and southcentral Oklahoma that inhabits forests and dense scrub vegetation.)
Erath County, Texas. Mid-October; grain-ripe to grain-shatter phenological stage.
123. A mean one- Plant of Texas bull-nettle, spurge-nettle, or tread-softly (Chidoscolus texanus) growing in a small opening of sandrough or sandtangle (Margarette oak, sand post oak or scrub post oak scrubland) in the West Cross Timbers-Grand Prairie vegetational mosaic in northcentral Texas. This member of the spurge or croton family (Euphorbiaceae) is a perennial with an extremely large taproot and an extraordinary drought tolerance. (The large root is edible, by the way.) The most distinguishing or sometimes and, unfortunately, memorable feature of this range plant if one brushes up against it (or cluelessly touches it) is the long-lasting stings imparted by numerous of trichomes (large, needle-like, poisonous or toxic hairs) with which this monster is armed. This physiological condition is known as contact urticaria, from Urticaceae, the sting-nettle family (Diggs et al., 1999, p. 598). Early chemical analysis of extracts from the trichomes showed presence of serotonin and perhaps as-yet unknown compounds (Lookadoo and Pollard, 1991).
The standard euphorb-type inflorescence of the Crotonoideae or Euphorboideae subfamily with opened and unopened flowers was presented in the second slide. Texas bull-nettle is monecious with separate male and female flowers in the flower cluster (Diggs et al., 1999, p. 598). Open flowers seen here were staminate (anthers still down deep in corolla).
For all of its remarkable (sometimes, sensational) feature Texas bullnettle has apparently received little study. Brief botanical descriptions such as that in Diggs et al. (1999, ps. 596, 598) are about the extent of thorough treatment. Another brief description was that of Johnston and Warnock (1963, ps. 124-126) as was that in the "bible" of Texas plant species, Manual of the Vascular Plants of Texas (Correll and Johnston, 1979, ps. 954-955).
Texas bull-nettle is generally observed to do best on disturbed habitats such as old fields (abandoned farmland), road cuts, and overgrazed pastures. The open, (often bare sand) habitat of dwarf post oak shrubland afforded similar environments, especially at microsite scale, for Texas bull-nettle. The pink flowers around the Texas bull-nettle seen here were on the annual Phlox drummondii, another species doing well on disturbed land and especially common on scrub post oak shrubland.
Erath County, Texas. Mid-April, and both slides taken under overcast sky); peak bloom stageof phenology.
124. Two humble ones- Two plants of Texas spiderwort (Tradescantia humilis) growing on a locally disturbed spot of deep sand on which a dwarf forest or scrubland dominated by sand post oak had developed. This is one of several Tradescantia species within the Cross Timbers and Prairies area of northcentral Texas and southcentral Oklahoma. T. humilis is one of the smaller of this speciesand is a characteristic species in bare-soil spots in "sandrough" as these dwarf forest or scrublands are known by ranchers, dairymen, and farmers in this general area.
Erath County, Texas. Mid-April; peak-bloom stage (was there any doubt?).
125. A humble one seen up close- Two views of a plant of Texas spiderwort growing on a disturbed microhabitat in "sandtangle", a scrub forest or shrubland dominated by sand post oak.This is one of the smaller, even dimutitive, Tradescantia species in the Cross Timbers-Prairies vegetational area of Texas.
Erath County, Texas. Mid-April; peak-bloom stage (and a nice showing).
126. Drummonded in the sand- Drummmond's phlox or pride-of-Texas (Phlox drummondii), a dainty annual that thrives in the spring-moist sand of "sandrough", the dwarf forest or oak scrubland dominated by sand post or margaretta oak. In small openings and at the edge of sand post oak-dominated vegetation this member of the phlox family (Ploemoniaceae) thrives for a brief period.
Erath County, Texas. Early April;
127. Texas-proud- Drummond's phlox or pride-of-Texas growing in a local disturbance (a natural opening or gap; a so-called "clearing") in the interior of a "sandrough" or "sandtangle" community, a dwarf or scrub forest or, alternatively (depending on perspective), a shrubland dominated by sand post oak. In a ratio of shoot to inflorescence size this annual forb may well be without peer in North America. Few other native dicotyledons allocate as a great a proportion of their resources to sexual reproductive effort (at least from the standpoint of flower size and growth) as does this pride-of-Texas phlox. What? You thought the pride of Texas was a yellow rose? Shows what you know about Texas.
The annual life cycle is an (= one) adaptation of plants to extremely harsh ("sterile", "barren") habitats or living conditions be that determined by soil, light, moisture, wind, flooding, temperatures, etc.; variations in these; or interactions among them that make for extremely rigerous conditions for life. The opportunistic feature of annuals with their capacity for "boom or bust" populations is one survival mechanism or "foraging strategy" for living in "feast or famine" environments. Therophyte (Raunkiaer, 1934) is the name for the life or growth form of annuals (and of some biennials) characterized by high allocation of resources to seed production as the means for survival during dormancy or from one generation to the next. Drummond's phlox epitomizes this annual life cycle adaptation, this approach or means to natural selection or fitness (perpetuation of the species through successful reproduction).
The deep--and characteristically dry--sand beds of the sand post oak range type and ecosystem is a "hostile" habitat to which the annual life cycle is a "good fit" for species fitness.
Erath County, Texas. Mid-April;
128. Succulent in the scrub- Comparatively large sprawling colony of Devil's tongue or eastern pricklypear (Opuntia humifusa or, based on some authorities, O. compressa) growing in an opening of "sandrough", a scrub forest or scrubland (depending on interprettion), in the Western Cross Timbers.
Eastland County, Texas. Early October.
129. Scrawny fruit- Three berries, the fruit type of the Cactaceae, on cladophylls of Devil's tongue or eastern pricklypear growing in a sand post-oak dominated range community. The two gray-colored "sticks" running horizontally through the cladophylls were shoots of the ever-present fiddleleaf greenbrier.
Erath County, Texas. Late October.
130. Grapes on perimeter- Mustang grape (Vitis mustangensis= V. candicans) growing on deep sand on outer edge of a sandrough (tanglerough) community. This Vitis species is adapted to a wide array of habitats. This particular specimen was in full-bloom. Erath County, Texas. April.
131. Blooming on the rough (sandrough that is)- Photograph of mustang grape showing arrangement of inflorescences and leaves along shoots. Deep sand has high infiltration capacity but harsh overall edaphic moisture relations so that remarkably low quantities of soil moisture are often available which makes for a hard-scramble habitat.
Erath County, Texas. April, full-bloom phenological stage.
132. Details of mustang grape- Leaves and flower clusters of mustang grape growing on sandrough scrub or dwarf forest range.
Erath County, Texas. April; immediate pre-bloom opening phenological stage.
133. Now wer're open for business- Clusters of opened flowers of mustang grape on the same "sandrough" scrub or dwarf forest dominated by sand post oak as in the preceeding slides of unopened flowers of mustang grape.
Erath County, Texas. Mid-April; peak-bloom phenological stage.
134. Plentiful (and sandy) harvest- Fruit-laden shoots of mustang grape growing on the edge of a sandrough or sandtangle scrubland on deep sand in the West Cross Timbers of northcentral Texas. Fruit crops in mustang grape are less common than no crop (crop failure), and bumper crops like the one displayed in these and subsequent slides are quite infrequent. This was the heaviest yeild of mustang grape on sandrough seen by this field observer so it was promptly shared.
Erath County Texas. Late October; fruit-ripe to mostly over-ripe phenological stage.
135 Abundant crop; reluctant harvest- Details of berry bearing shoots of mustang grape on edge of a sandtangle scrub range in the West Cross Timbers of northcentral Texas. Most leaves had already been shed and those still on the shoots were mostly senesced (more dead than alive having completed the life cycle of these annual organs).
The author did not know when these berries had ripened, but their mostly over-ripe state of maturity yet presence "still on the vine" attested to the general lack of palatability to most aniimals, inculding to humans in a raw state (see captions below).
Erath County Texas. Late October; fruit-ripe to mostly over-ripe phenological stage.
136. Fit for wild horses (or hogs, and that's about all)- Over-ripe berries and senesced (more dead than alive) leaves of mustang grape on the perimeter of a sandrough scrub range (beef cattle, white-tailed deer, Rio Grande wild turkey) in the West Cross Timbers of northcentral Texas. Fruit type of grapes (Vitis spp.) is a berry, "a multiseeded, indehsicent fruit in which the pericarp is fleshy throughout (Smith, 1977, p. 290). In case of mustang grape, these berries are extrmely tart not uncommonly imparting a burning sensation to the human mouth. In fact, apparently this characteristic "taste" (chemical sensation to taste and associated organs) also obtains in many other animals given that these fruits are usually left uneaten as, for example, on this range where even wild turkeys and numerous individuals of northern mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) had elected to leave these tart fruits untouched.
The deltoid leaves of mustang crape characteristically have a dished adaxial ("upper") surface with leaf margins turned upward (as if to hold water). "On the other leaf" it is common to see leaves of mustang grape with upper leaf margins projecting downward. Examples of both inclinations were visible in the examples seen in photographs included in this section.
Details of the grape berry was provided in the immediately succeeding caption.
Erath County Texas. Late October; fruit-ripe to mostly over-ripe phenological stage.
137. Sand-covered and pert 'nar juiceless- Berries of mustang grape produced on the margins of a sandtangle scrubland that developed on deep, loose sand in the West Cross Timbers of northcentral Texas. This author did not know when these fruits reached peak ripeness, but obviously most of these berries were past that stage having progressed to the point of being primarily a semi-moist pulp covered with a leathery skin. If that stage of maturity had not been enough to reduce palatability of these organs a covering of sand and caliche (calicum carbonate) further added to reluctance of animals (including white-teiled deer, wild turkeys, mockingbirds) to consume these berries.
The fleshy fruit of Vitis species is a true fruit in which the entire pericarp is soft (Smith (1977, p. 69). Cronquist (1971, p. 626) described a berry generally as being a flsehy fruit with fleshy pericarp or with a hard or leathery rind and specifically the berry of grape was a typical berry with a fleshy pericarp and having an exocarp being a thin skin. The exocarp is the outermost layer of a the pericarp which is the ovary wall of ripe fruit (Cronquist, 1971, p. 625).
Erath County Texas. Late October; fruit-ripe to mostly over-ripe phenological stage.
138. Deceiving fruit- Detailed views of berries (berry being the fruit type of grape species) of mustang grape growing on the outer contact of sandrough, a scrubland range type dominated by sand or dwarf post oak, in the West Cross Timbers of northcentral Texas. Berries shown here were in various stages of maturity ranging from early ripeness to overripeness. Most had progressed to the post-ripeness stage of matuirty so that most "juice" was gone and the inner pericarp had turned to a semi-moist pulp.These berries had been "dusted" with blown sand and caliche (calcium carbonate) particles so that their palatability (mostly lack thereof) to animals, including man, on this range had been further reduced.
At their "very best" mustang grapes have a shrp tartness or "tangy" taste. Vines (1960, p. 716) described this fruit as "possessed of a fiery pungency which, unless the skin is carefully removed, irritates the mouth". Mustang grapes are best when made into jam or jelly or, if one is not a teetotlaer, wine. This latter form of consumption would not quite be up to standards for domesticated "fruit of the vine" in France, California, or even viticultural newcomer Texas. It should be noted tht resident whit-tailed edeer, wild turkey, mockingbird, and bluejay (Cyanocitta cristata) chose to leave this fruit of the vine still on the vine. Even free-ranging feral hogs in this area had somehow missed these tangy morsels.
Description and specifics of the grape berry were given in the immediately preceding caption.
Erath County Texas. Late Octobe ; fruit-ripe to mostly over-ripe phenological stage.
139. Rusty on a sandrough- Inflorescences and leaves of rusty or southern blackhaw (Virburnum rufidulum) growing on outside edge of a sandrough or tanglerough range. The deep sand of this range site has high water infiltration capacity so that a lot of soil moisture is available to plants, at least for short periods of time. This versatile shrub that is often at home on river bottoms was taking full advantage of recent spring rains.
Erath County, Texas. April, full-bloom phenological stage.
140. Roughleaf dogwood blooms- Two views of flower clusters of rusty blackhaw thriving on a sandrough range shortly after heavy rains, almost all water of which quickly went into the soil profile of this otherwise tough country. Erath County, Texas. April.
141. Doggone study- Bunch or cluster of drupes and leaves of roughleaf or Drummond's dogwood (Cornus drummondii). These two examples had been produced on the large, spread-crowned specimen introduced in the immediately preceding photograph. This individual was growing on Richardson's Creek, a small stream running through a landscape patchwork of Grand Prairie and West Cross Timbers in northcentral Texas.
The fruit type of dogwood (Cornus) species is a drupe, "a fleshy fruit with a firm endocarp that permanently encloses the usually solitary seed, or with a portion of the endocarp separately encloseing each of two or more seeds" (Gleason and Cronquist, 1991, p. 872). In the specific instance of Cornus species the drupe has one stone which has one to five locules each of which has a single ovule developing into a seed (Gleason and Cronquist, 1991, p.323).
Tarleton State University Hunewell Ranch, Erath County, Texas. Late October; fruit-ripe stage.
142. Drupped in the Cross Timbers- Ripe and over-ripe (dried) drupes of roughleaf or Drummond's dogwood on a large plant growing on the bank of a small stream (Richardson's Creek) in northcentral Texas in a landscape mosaic of Grand Prairie and West Cross Timbers. Drupes of roughleaf dogwood are borne in groups or clusters that are typically widely spaced on red-pigmented branchlets or pedicels.
Roughleaf dogwood is a characteristic shrub of tallgrass prairie and adjacent savannahs like those of the Cross Timbers and Prairie Peninsula.
Tarleton State University Hunewell Ranch, Erath County, Texas. Late October; fruit-ripe stage.
143. Doggone fruit- Immature (first or top slide) and mature fruit (second or lower slide) of roughleaf dogwood. The former was in the Texas Blackland (also Waxyland) Prairie (Fannin County, Texas; July). Example of mature fruit was in West Cross Timbers (Erath County, Texas; October). The fruit type of dogwood is a drupe.
144. Study of sandrough scrub range- Physiogonomy and structure of a climax sandtangle or sandrough shrubland in the West Cross Timbers. At the exterior of this potential natural (postclimax in the Clementsian model) vegetation of deep-sand soil the architecture typical of this range community was readily seen. The two trees at right were blackjack oak, a woody species much less abundant than the dominant sand, scrub, or dwarf post oak (known also as Margarete oak).
Almost all of the lower vegetative cover in this perimeter view was that of common or saw greenbriar, which is consistently the associate to co-dominant plant species of this unique rangeland cover type.
Erath County, Texas. October, autumnal aspect. Extreme Drought (Palmer Scale). Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem). Scrub variant in K-75 (Cross Timbers). Edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak). Deep Sand range site. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut Plain Cross Timbers Ecoregion, 29e (Griffith et al., 2004).
145. Bare interior- Inside a sandrough shrubland that was dominated almost exclusively by sand, scrub, or dwarf post oak or Margarete oak and with common or saw greembriar as the associate species. This stand of dwarf post oak afforded a typical example of: the more open form of this range type showing 1) the habit of sand post oak, 2) interior structure of this range vegetation when dominated almost exclusively by sand post oak, 3) simple structure largely devoid of lower vegetational layers (except for greenbriar), and 3) nearly complete coverage of soil surface by oak leaves yearlong. Note that current year's leaves are still on trees (ie. were not yet shed) so that ground cover consisted of leaves from previous years.
The first of these two photographs was taken from a small opening in the canopy cover. A few upper shoots of mare'stail or horseweed (Conyza canadensis) were visible in foreground (along with planty of saw greenbriar of course). Horseweed is typically a pioneer or colonizing species of disturbed or very marginal areas.
Erath County, Texas. October, autumnal aspect. Extreme Drought (Palmer Scale). Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem). Scrub variant in K-75 (Cross Timbers). Edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak). Deep Sand range site. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut Plain Cross Timbers Ecoregion, 29e (Griffith et al., 2004).
146. More of a bare inside- Set of three progressively closer-up views within the interior of the more open or "bare" understorey form of a sand, scrub, or dwarf post oak-dominated shrubland in West Cross Timbers. The vegetational expression (or form) of more open understorey (fewer layers of vegetation and/or less lower cover) of sandrough scrubland provided almost no range feed other than the mast of acorns in autumn and grazable lower leaves and tender shoots of saw greenbriar in spring.
Attention was drawn to the almost complete ground cover of oak leaves shed from previous years. All current year's leaves were still alive on oak branches.Some plants of various herbaceous species had emerged through the shallow cover of leaf litter. Any mulching effect of leaves was limited to moisture conservation and not plant exclusion. Conversely, it seemed obvious that the sparse ground cover was due--to some degree at least--to shade or, rephrased, to exclusion by canopy cover of adequate light for survival of plants that were limited to lower levels of the vegetation structure. Common or saw greenbriar, the associate and, rarely, co-dominant plant species obviously gathered adequate light for robust growth (including reproduction) by climbing to top of tree crowns.
It must also, however, be allowed that grazing by cattle and white-tailed deer on this range was almost assuredly another important factor for scarcity of herbaceous species like the grasses. Then again, as will be discussed below, the species of grasses present in this understorey were usually decreaser species such as sand lovegrass and little bluestem (Andropogon scoparius= Schizachyrium scoparium). Invader species of grass such as annuals like crabgrass (Digitaria spp.) and grassbur (Cenchrus insertus= C. longispinus) were absent. This observer did not encounter a single plant of crabgrass or grassbur in this range plant community in two and a half days of sampling this vegetation (Rosiere, unpublished data).
Important hint to sandrough visitors: the appearance of "openness" and thus relative ease in moving through the range vegetation seen in this section is most deceiving. Spaces between oak shoots (boles, trunks, or whatever term is appropriate) were almost inevitably spaces occupied by shoots of saw greenbriar such that there was so much cover--such a living barrier--of thorn-fitted vertical "strands" that movement of larger animals, including humans and livestock, was greatly impeded. It was "woody hell" getting through this mess. Recommendation: wear strong, durable clothing and move slowly and carefully when passing through sandtangle scrub.
Erath County, Texas. October, autumnal aspect. Extreme Drought (Palmer Scale). Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem). Scrub variant in K-75 (Cross Timbers). Edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak). Deep Sand range site. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut Plain Cross Timbers Ecoregion, 29e (Griffith et al., 2004).
147. Woody all around- Interior of a more open form of a shrubland on deep sand dominated by sand, scrub, or dwarf post oak with common greenbriar as associate species and almost no understorey other than basal shoots (with some leaves) of the common or saw greenbriar. This pair of "nested photoplots" fetured a comparatively large plant of mustang grape (center midground of first slide and right most trunk of second slide). Mustang grape typically occurs almost exclusively along the more sunlite perimeter of sandrough range, but it does rarely become established and apparently thrives in the more open areas in the interior of sandrough as seen in these two "nested" photographs.
Several thorn-fitted shoots of saw greenbriar--visible as basal green leaves near the ground surface--were in the range vegetation of these two slides. Even though this wooded vegetation appears to be relatively "open" it was so full of greenbriar stalks that movement through it was severely hampered.
Erath County, Texas. October, autumnal aspect. Extreme Drought (Palmer Scale). Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem). Scrub variant in K-75 (Cross Timbers). Edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak). Deep Sand range site. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut Plain Cross Timbers Ecoregion, 29e (Griffith et al., 2004).
148. Still all woody- Another plant of mustang grape (different from the mustang grape shown in the preceding two slide-caption set) with sand or scrub post oak in a tract of sandtangle, a shrubland dominated by dwarf post oak with saw greebriar as associate on a deep sand environment in the West Cross Timbers of northcentral Texas.
Erath County, Texas. October, autumnal aspect. Extreme Drought (Palmer Scale). Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem). Scrub variant in K-75 (Cross Timbers). Edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak). Deep Sand range site. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut Plain Cross Timbers Ecoregion, 29e (Griffith et al., 2004).
149. Oak shoots and briar- Local stand of sand or dwarf post oak and blackjack oak (right-most tree with "pins", dead limbs, hanging down) with a lot of saw greenbriar shoots climbing into crowns of oaks. Greenbriar shoots are not conspicuous in this photograph or even when one is in this vegetation until right upon them. This is the problem in trying to move through this mess. While this range plant community appears to be "open" it is actually so filled with greenbriar shoots that movement by humans, livestock, and deer is difficult and time-consuming. Greenbriar also impeds utilization of any herbaceous growth in the understorey. In this way, greenbriar offers considerable protection from grazing/browsing animals.
This would be a Quercus margarettiae-Smilax bona nox habitat type using Daubenmire (1952, 1968A) classification.
Erath County, Texas. October, autumnal aspect. Extreme Drought (Palmer Scale). Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem). Scrub variant in K-75 (Cross Timbers). Edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak). Deep Sand range site. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut Plain Cross Timbers Ecoregion, 29e (Griffith et al., 2004).
Interpretation of morphology and, therefore, plant community: The small tree-size of stature and trunk-diamter of scrub or dwarf post oak was such that these woody plants could be interpreted as trees (albeit them of "substandard" size) and hence this woody vegettion interpreted as a forest. Perhaps the concept of a forest of midget trees: something like the so-clled pygmy forest of northern California as, for instance, the Jug Handle State Natural Reserve in Mendocino County, California. (This latter example was covered in Range Types in the chapter, Pacific Northwest Forests under the section in turn titled Scrub Forests of the Pacific Coast Region.)
Such a conceptual view of sandrough scrub as a "pygmy forest" would, in this worker's view, be less descriptive than scrub oak shrubland because the oak plants sare generally (though arbitrarily) the size of large shrubs than of small trees. Perhaps more importantly is the fact that many of the shoots--that appear as individual trees--of sand or scrub post oak are various offshoots (clones, modules, ramets) of rhizomatous genotypes (genets), trees with generally belowground rootstocks. This was recognized by Sargent (1933, p. 295) when he described Q. stellata var. Margaretta f. stolonifer that formed "broad thickets with stoloniferous shoots". (These horizontal shoots could be interpreted as either woody stolons or rhizomes but most of these structures are belowground.)
Conversely, these oaks could be interpreted as trees in the same fashion as other colony-forming tree species with spreading rootstocks such as quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) and black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) or New Mexico locust (R. neomexicana). New Mexico locust has generally been viewed as a shrub whereas black locust is clearly of tree-size.
Thus there seemed to be no way to avoid some arbitrary interpretation of dwarf, scrub, or sand post oak. Many plants (shoots) of this species in northcentral Texas seemed to be larger than some scrub oak plants described elsewhere. (Perhaps this larger size was appropriate for the Lone Star State.)
One thing for certain: this woody plant community had a closed canopy (ie. interlocking crowns) so that it was not woodland or savanna.
150. Internal structure and makeup- Two examples of the sand or scrub post oak-saw greenbriar (Quercus stellata var. margarettiae= Q. margarettiae-Smilax bona nox) habitat type system of Daubenmire (1952, 1968A) was applied to this sandtangle scrub plant community. Interior of this range cover type was presented in these two views. A number of basal shoots of greenbriar were on the floor of this scrubland which had a more-or-less completely closed canopy. This range vegetation had been grazed by cattle and white-tailed deer. It was not known what, if any impact, this had on the understorey layer. Plant cover of lower layers was sparse, but much of this apparently was due to extremely limited sunlight penetrating through the canopy to the lower layers.This scrub plant community was in the West Cross Timbers of northcentral Texas.
For all of its simplicity from a plant species composition standpoint this is the potential natural (climax) vegetation for this deep sand environment. In the monoclimax theory of F.E. Clements this is postclimax vegetation (Clements, 1936, ps. 266-267, 269; Weaver and Clements, 1938, ps. 82-83, 85-86). This phenomenon of deep sand furnishing a more favorable habitat tthan the adjacent environments explains to large extent such postclimax plant communities as the Nebraska Sandhills and the Cross Timbers of which of this sandyland scrub is a part. Such shrubland is known locally as sandrough or sandtangle.
Erath County, Texas. Late October, autumnal aspect. Extreme Drought (Palmer Scale). Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem). Scrub variant in K-75 (Cross Timbers). Edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak). Deep Sand range site. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut Plain Cross Timbers Ecoregion, 29e (Griffith et al., 2004).
151. Less bare interior- In the deep interior of a cattle and white-tailed deer range of sandrough--a sand post oak-saw greenbriar woody community--the density of greenbriar shoots and and lower leaves of scrub post oak were of greater density than is other parts of this same range. At this density, human penetration of the lower vegetational layers was nearly--though not quite--impossible.
There were sapling- and seedling-sized shoots of dwarf post oak. Most of these smaller, younger were clonal offshoots from rootstocks (woody rhizomes) of adult oaks. There was almost no herbaceous growth in the range vegetation seen here. Note heavy and nearly complete cover of the land surface by oak leaves.shed the previous year(s). This comparatively simple (from a plant species composition standpoint) range plant community is the climax vegetation for this deep sand habitat. Such sandyland shrubland is postclimax vegetation in the Clementsian monoclimax theory.
This vegetation was being sampled for quantiative description. Sampling included diameter breast height (DBH) and density of oak boles as well as recording density and size ctegories of greenbriar shoots.
Erath County, Texas. Late October, autumnal aspect. Extreme Drought (Palmer Scale). Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem). Scrub variant in K-75 (Cross Timbers). Edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak). Deep Sand range site. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut Plain Cross Timbers Ecoregion, 29e (Griffith et al., 2004).
152. Only thing bare is "booger bear"- Interior of a nearly inpenetrable "thicket" comprised of scrub post oak or margarette oak and saw greenbriar known as sandrough or sandtangle that developed on deep sand in the West Cross Timbers of northcentral Texas. The Daubenmire (1952, 1968A) unit of habitat type could be applied readily to this range vegetation: Quercus stellata var. margarettiae= Q. margarettiae-Smilax bona nox habitat type.
There was--for all intents and purposes--zero herbaceous layer in most of this climax plant community including in the two "photoplots" presented here. The only lower woody layer was that composed of basal leaves and stems of common or saw greenbriar. Given that this liana extended from the ground to oak crowns perhaps it made no more sense to describe those lower greenbriar shoots as a layer than to regard the lower boles of dwarf post oak as part of a lower woody layer. Conversely, there were seedlings and/or small, young offshoots of runner or sand post oak that could be regarded as a lower woody layer. (Some of this lower sand post oak leafy layer was shown shortly below.)
One fact that nobody whoever traversed (or tried to) this sandtangle could deny that it was nearly impassable.
Erath County, Texas. Late October, autumnal aspect. Extreme Drought (Palmer Scale). Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem). Scrub variant in K-75 (Cross Timbers). Edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak). Deep Sand range site. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut Plain Cross Timbers Ecoregion, 29e (Griffith et al., 2004).
153. Livin' up to its name- Interior of a shrubland known as sandtangle, a range plant community dominated by sand or scrub post oak (sometimes known as runner oak or Margarete oak) with saw or common greenbriar, a monocotyledonous liana, as the associate species. The habitat type concept of Daubenmire (1952, 1968A) could be applied handily to this simple climax vegetation: dwarf or Margarete oak-saw greenbriar or the Quercus stellata var. margarettiae= Q. margarettiae- Smilax bona nox habitat type.
In the vernacular of Winston Churchill this was a "briar curtain". Nothing but small animals can pass through the dense local stands of greenbriar such as those seen here. Larger animals like deer, cattle, and humans are compelled to go aroung such "briar curtains or "braids of briar" and usually there are abundant "vertical strands" of greenbriar along such edges. This range was being grazed by white-tailed deer and beef cattle. Both of these animal species did graze and travel throughout this scrub vegetation, or at least around patches of 'briar curtain".
Given that 1) there is very limited herbaceous plant life in such local stands of saw greembriar and 2) limited foliar cover of herbaceous species is predominately that of climax species such as little bluestem and sand lovegrass, it was not likely that grazing by cattle and deer had substantially shifted the species composition of the sporadic or widely scattered herbaceous portion of this range.
Erath County, Texas. Late October, autumnal aspect. Extreme Drought (Palmer Scale). Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem). Scrub variant in K-75 (Cross Timbers). Edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak). Deep Sand range site. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut Plain Cross Timbers Ecoregion, 29e (Griffith et al., 2004).
154. Lower parts of "bearcat" vegetation- Deep interior of a cattle and white-teailed deer range of sandrough or sandtangle, a shrubland of sand post oak or Margarete oak (dominant species) and saw greenbriar (associate species) on deep sand in West Cross Timbers of northcentral Texas. By the Daubenmire (1952, 1968) habitat type system this range vegetation would be the dwarf or sand post oak-saw greenbriar or the Quercus stellata var. margarettiae= Q. margarettiae- Smilax bona nox habitat type.
It was explained in introduction of this section devoted to sandrough that dwarf or scrub post oak is a clonal species some shoots of which reach the size of small- or, rarely, medium-sized trees with most shoots being the general size of shrubs. For this reason, this range plant community, known also as sandtangle, has been interpreted herein as a shrubland, scrubland, or scrub rathern than a pygmy forest or forest of midget trees. Likewise, the shoots of this colony forming oak are of such density that a closed canopy (intertwined or interlocking crowns of the closely spaced shoots) is characteristic of this scrub so that it could not qualify as either woodland or svanna.
The clonal or modular feature of Margarete oak or scrub post oak was particularily in these two "photoplots" which featured seedling-sized offshoots (clonal or vegetatively produced shoots) forming what could be interpreted as a lower woody layer. This interpretation would be an arbitrary call as shcu shoots would not differ in orgin from leaf-bearing lower branches coming directly off the lower bole of adult-sized boles or trunks. Still, these two slides presented the predominant mode of asexual reproduction of Margarete oak. It was possible that some of these seedling-resembling shoots were, in fact, seedlings from an abundant crop of acorns produced the preceding year. Actual seedlings--instead of small or seedling-sized clonal shoots--would constitute a component of a lower woody layer in this scrub range vegetation.
There were also some shoots of saw greenbriar in the shrubland vegetation seen in these two shorter camera-distance slides of sandtangle, the appropriateness of this local, descriptive name being only all too evident. It is extremely for any large animal (eg. man, deer, cow, turkey) to move through sandtangle having this density of scrub post oak and greenbriar shoots. Density of saw greenbriar shoots seen here can be compared to the lower density and cover of greenbriar shoots in the more open understorey form of this same range that was featured earlier in this section (see again above).
Erath County, Texas. Late October, autumnal aspect. Extreme Drought (Palmer Scale). Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem). Scrub .variant in K-75 (Cross Timbers). Edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak). Deep Sand range site. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut Plain Cross Timbers Ecoregion, 29e (Griffith et al., 2004).
155. Shoots, aboveground and below- Good example of the woody horizontal shoots of Margarete oak or scrub, sand, or dwarf post oak (Quercus margarettiae= Q. stellata var. margarettiae f. stolonifer) along with shoots of saw greenbriar (Smilax bona nox), the dominant and associate, respectively, of a shrubland known as sandtangle or sandrough in the West Cross Timbers of northcentral Texas.
It was not known whether these woody horizontal shoots of sand post oak were rhizomes or stolons, but most of them are below the soil surface suggesting to this worker that they were rhizomes commonly known as woody rootstocks.
Erath County, Texas. Late October, autumnal aspect. Extreme Drought (Palmer Scale). Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem). Scrub .variant in K-75 (Cross Timbers). Edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak). Deep Sand range site. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut Plain Cross Timbers Ecoregion, 29e (Griffith et al., 2004).
156. Something besides dead leaves- Two "photosamples" of the very limited understorey of a dwarf post oak-saw greenbriar scrubland, known as sandrough, in the West Croiss Timbers of northcentral Texas. The first slide included shoots of saw greenbriar, scrub post oak or Margarete oak, and tapered-leaf panicgrass or Lindheimer's rosette panicgrass (Panicum acuminatum var acuminatum= P. lindheimeri) while the second slide had shoots of saw greenbriar and Lindheimer's rosette panicgrass or taper-leaf panicgrass.
Lindheimer's rosette panicgrass was the most common (or, more precisely, the least uncommon or the least infrequent) native, cool-season, perennial grass in this range plant community.
Note the essentially complete cover of soil surface by shed leaves of dwarf or scrub post oak that were shed in previous years (all oak leaves of the current year were still alive on shoots).
Erath County, Texas. Late October, autumnal aspect. Extreme Drought (Palmer Scale). Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem). Scrub .variant in K-75 (Cross Timbers). Edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak). Deep Sand range site. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut Plain Cross Timbers Ecoregion, 29e (Griffith et al., 2004).
157. Sundry shoots- Lower layer of range vegetation of sandrough, a scrubland of Margarete oak or sand or scrub post oak and saw greenbriar, in the West Cross Timbers. Shoots of greenbriar, offshoots or seedlings of Margarete oak, and culm with autumnal fascicles of Linheimer's rosette panicgrass or tapered-leaf panicgrass.
Ground surface completely covered by oak leaves, almost all of which had been shed the previous year(s) with current year's leaves still on oaks.
Erath County, Texas. Late October, autumnal aspect. Extreme Drought (Palmer Scale). Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem). Scrub .variant in K-75 (Cross Timbers). Edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak). Deep Sand range site. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut Plain Cross Timbers Ecoregion, 29e (Griffith et al., 2004).
158. Oversanded in sandrough- Two pair of cespitose plants (two genotypes) of sand lovegrass that had been overused by beef cattle on a sandrough or sandtangle sxcrub range in the West Cross Timbers. The two sets of two genotypic plants were roughly 80 yards distant from each other, but the four plants had basically the same degree of overuse.
Two other individual plants of sand lovegrass with the same degree of extreme overuse were presented in the next two slide-caption set.
All six of these extremely overused plants would have been in the immature caryopsis phenological stage had they not been grazed to the ground. Accurate determination of phenological stage was readily determined from ungrazed plants of sand lovegrass in ungrazed outside fencerows of this and one other sandrough range. (This was shown in a photograph presented above of ungrazed sand lovegrass taken at the same time as these "mangled" plants.)
Erath County, Texas. Late October, autumnal aspect; would-have-been soft dough stage of phenology barring excessive defoliation.. Extreme Drought (Palmer Scale).
159. Sanded too rough- Two cespitose plants (two genetically distinct individuals) of sand lovegrass that had been overused by beef cattle on the sandrough range featured herein. Four other individual plants (featured as two sets of paired plants) of sand lovegrass on this sane sandtangle range were the subject of the immediately preceding slide-caption set.
Erath County, Texas. Late October, autumnal aspect; would-have-been soft dough stage of phenology barring excessive defoliation.. Extreme Drought (Palmer Scale).
Note regarding decreasers: All plants of sand lovegrass found on this sandrough range other than two small ones growing in a dense stand of saw greenbriar had received the same degree of use as the plants shown here (ie. as close a chins of cattle would permit them to crop the plants). Sand lovegrass, the climax dominant (or co-dominant species with little bluestem) for this scrubland on a Deep Sand range site, was the most widely distributed herbaceous species on this range. In local, open spots ("natural clearings") in this sandrough vegetation little bluestem was the most abundant grass and mare'stail or horseweed was the most abundant forb. Overall, however, throughout this scrub or sand post oak-saw greenbriar range sand lovegrass was the dominant and most abundant herbaceous species (afgain, such as its population was).
In spite of overuse, a climax decreaser grass was still the major grass, the major herb, on this range. Nor was this the first year that such overuse had taken place, the same grazing abuse having occurred for a number of years. It could not be determined if these few plants of sand lovergrass were the last survivors of overgrazing or, alternatively, if in spite of consistent, yearly overuse these sand lovegrass plants had persisted and were the natural or potential density of sand lovegrass on this Deep Sand range site though, unquestionably, at much lower foliar cover and apparently lower vigor. Plus this was a year of Extreme Drought (Palmer Drought Severity Index).
An ecological mystery was presented in these "photolots".
Meanwhile back at the sandrough- The slides presented in the following portion of this Sandrough section were taken ten days after the autumn scenes presented immediately above. In that brief intrum leaves of Margarete oak or dwarf post oak had commenced being shed resulting in a more distinct autumnal aspect and improved quality of photographs (even if this was not as apparent following scanning in an Epson Perfection V700 scanner).
Quality of photographs was distinctly improved by presence of a light overcast sky which prevented shadows (in contrast to slides presented immediately above taken under a full-sun sky). Periodically throughout this on-line publication the author has shown and discussed comparisons of photographs taken under overcast versus sunny skies. Qualtiy of photographs has varied depending on the photographic subject matter, sometimes being better under full-sun, well-lite atmospheres and sometimes being superior with overcast sky. In this instance, overcast clearly (no pun intended) won out, "lens-down", for most features. It should be emphasized however that the above photographs taken under a full-sun sky gave an accurate indication as to extent of canopy cover and, thus, of degree or extent of shading on the floor of this shrubland range.
160. Shedding in the sandrough- Onset (early phases) of leaf abscission and fall in Margarete oak or scrub post oak in a sandtangle shrubland in the West Crosss Timbers of northcentral Texas, These two (and subsequent) views of the interior of this sandrough range were of a more open (less dense or fewer shoots) portion of this dwarf post oak-saw greeenbriar community.
Groups of lower green leaves (those immediately to roughly a foot above the soil surface) were of saw greenbriar indicating the density and foliar cover of this travel-impeding monocotyledonous shrub, a well-armed liana. Denser stands of greenbriar and/or oak shoots were near4ly to completely impenetrable to man and larger animals including cattle and white-tailed deer, both of which fed and sheltered in this scrub plant commuity.
Absence (or, at least, near-absence) of herbaceous plant life in range vegetation was even more obvious at this point in the annual cycle of this climax plant community.
Erath County, Texas. Early November, autumnal aspect. Extreme Drought (Palmer Scale). Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem). Scrub variant in K-75 (Cross Timbers). Edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak). Deep Sand range site. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut Plain Cross Timbers Ecoregion, 29e (Griffith et al., 2004).
161. Sandtangle in autumn- Interior of a shrubland range plant community, known to local folk as sandrough or sandtangle, in early stages (phases) of leaf shedding. The habitat type classification of Daubenmire (1952, 1968) could be readily applied to this native vegetation: Margarete oak-saw greenbriar (Quercus margarettiae- Smilax bona nox) habitat type. These two photographs were a "nested" set of "photoquadrants" with the second slide being a subplot of the larger "photolot" presented in the first slide.
Autumn coloration of leaves of both of these woody species was evident.
Leaf litter on the soil surface was a mixture of leaves shed in previous year(s) as well as some shed during on-going current leaf fall. Leaves from previous year(s) comprised the bulk of ground cover at this stage or phase of autumn.
Absence (or, at least, near-absence) of herbaceous plant life in range vegetation was even more obvious at this point in the annual cycle of this climax shrubland or scrub community.
Erath County, Texas. Early November, autumnal aspect. Extreme Drought (Palmer Scale). Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem). Scrub variant in K-75 (Cross Timbers). Edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak). Deep Sand range site. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut Plain Cross Timbers Ecoregion, 29e (Griffith et al., 2004).
162. Autumn tangle- Interior of a sandrough or sandtangle range (grazed/browsed by cattle and white-tailed deer) with autumn-colored leaves being shed from Margarete oak or dwarf post oak and saw greenbriar. These "nested photoplots" (the second slide being a portion or subplot of the first slide) provided a good composite of interior structure and species composition of climax vegetation that could handily be described by the Daubenmire (1952, 1968) habitat type method as a (Quercus margarettiae- Smilax bona nox) habitat type in which sand post oak was the dominant and saw greenbrir the associate species.
Absence (or, at least, near-absence) of herbaceous plant life in this climax natural scrubland was obvious at this point in the annual cycle of this range plant community that was a postclimax (Clements, 1936, Weaver and Clements, 1938, ps. 85-86) on deep, loose sand in the West Cross Timbers of northcentral Texas.
Erath County, Texas. Early November, autumnal aspect. Extreme Drought (Palmer Scale). Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem). Scrub variant in K-75 (Cross Timbers). Edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak). Deep Sand range site. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut Plain Cross Timbers Ecoregion, 29e (Griffith et al., 2004).
163. Tall and tangled shoots- Shoots of Margarete oak or sand, scrub, or dwarf post oak with ascending saw greenbriar climbing into oak crowns deep in the interior of a scrubland (known locally as sandtangle) in which these two woody species were the dominant and associate, respectively. These two "photoplots" were of the more open (lower shoot density) form of this postclimax range plant community.
While vegetation of this scrub range type as seen here might appear to be free or, at least, relatively clear of lower layers of vegetation this was definitely not the true situation. Saw greenbriar, though not conspicuous, was abundant enough that movement of larger animals, incluidng humans and cattle, through this range was seriously impeded. Literally every oak shoot had a number of shoots of saw greenbriar at its base and climbing to top of its crown. Furthermore, this strongly rhizomatous species of greenbriar had shoots twinning throughout "open" areas among oak shoots such that inter-trunk spaces were deceptively entangled with the thorny lianas. Even in these interspaces with lower density and cover of greenbriar there were remarkably few herbaceous plants. It was not known if near-absence of herbaceous plants was due to feeding by beef cattle and white-tailed deer or a result of fairly dense shade due to the closed canopy of Margarete or sand post oak and tree crown-occupying saw greenbriar.
This climax range vegetation was handily described as a sand or scrub post oak-saw greenbriar habitat type by the method developed by Daubenmire (1952, 1968).
Leaves of both scrub post oak and saw greenbriar had achieved autumn coloration. A good proportion of these leaves had been shed and added to the already nearly complete litter cover of the soil surface. Newly fallen leaves added a distinctive color to the ground leaf layer that, at time of these photograpahs, was still comprised primarily of leaves from the previous year(s).
Erath County, Texas. Early November, autumnal aspect. Extreme Drought (Palmer Scale). Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem). Scrub variant in K-75 (Cross Timbers). Edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak). Deep Sand range site. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut Plain Cross Timbers Ecoregion, 29e (Griffith et al., 2004).
164. Live trunks lying low- Examples of clonal Margarete oak or sand, scrub, or dwarf post oak with horizontal shoots aboveground (above the soil surface). It was not known if these horizontal shoots had actually grown above the land surface or if these woody shoots actually (initially) grew belowground and had been exposed by erosion of the sandy soil. The true situation would be relevant in determining if the shoots were stolons (aboveground) or rhizomes (belowground). Sargent (1933, p.295) apparently interpreted such shoots as stolons because he provided the nomenclatural designation and description of Quercus stellata var. margaretta f. stolonifera for the thicket-forming taxon that spread by "stoloniferous shoots". In contrast, Gleason and Cronquist (1991. p. 85) described Q. margaretta as "spreading underground and becoming colonial" thereby implying that most horizontal shoots were subterranean and, hence, rhizomes.
Shoots of sand post oak in the sandrough range featured here were more (at least appeared to be more) below- than aboveground. Actually, most shoots seemed to arise from a structure more like a large rootcrown than "running rootstocks" typical of saw greenbriar or roughleaf dogwood that also grew in openings and edges of sandrough scrubland.
The first and second slides displayed in this three-slide set were of the same shoots taken from opposite directions.
Erath County, Texas. Early November, autumnal aspect. Extreme Drought (Palmer Scale). Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem). Scrub variant in K-75 (Cross Timbers). Edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak). Deep Sand range site. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut Plain Cross Timbers Ecoregion, 29e (Griffith et al., 2004).
165. Interior revealed- Two views deep inside a sand or scrub post oak-saw greenbriar (dominant and associate species, respectively) shrubland knonw as sandtangle or sandrough in the West Cross Timbers of northcentral Texas at an early phase of autumnal leaf fall. The first of these two slides was a local stand of shoots (trunks or boles) of sand or scrub post oak that was probably one or, at the most, two plants (two genotypes of Q. margaretta). Each shoot (bole plus crown) was a ramet or module of the genet (genotype).
The second slide was of one plant of blackjack oak (leftmost tree or shoot) and two quite large trunks and one small, sapling-size trunk or shoot of sand or dwarf post oak. To the immediate left of this bentover (and seemingly dead) sapling-sized shoot was amulti-shooted plant of sqw greenbriar with yellowed, autumn-coloration leaves. Dead, low-hanging limbs on these oaks (especially prominent on the blackjack oak) are known as "pins".
The nearly complete ground cover of shed oak leaves was comprised of leaves from the previous year(s) as well as some of the earliest-to-fall leaves of the current year.
Erath County, Texas. Early November, autumnal aspect. Extreme Drought (Palmer Scale). Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem). Scrub variant in K-75 (Cross Timbers). Edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak). Deep Sand range site. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut Plain Cross Timbers Ecoregion, 29e (Griffith et al., 2004).
166. Still a tangle- Set of "nested" views of a stand of scrub, sand, or dwarf post oak or Margarete oak in a scrubland dominated by this species on a habitat of deep, loose sand in the West Cross Timbers of northcentral Texas. This oak species is clonal with belowground (and, less commonly, aboveground) shoots from which vertical shoots (trunks or boles with crowns) arise. It is extremely difficult to determine--even with superficial excavation--the origin of such shoots or, in other words, actual clonal units or modules and, likewise, to ascertain to which genetically distinct plants (genotypes) this offshoots belong. From the first slide it appeared that there were three modular units or, expressed differently, three genetically distinct plants with two or three shoots (modules or clones) each. Two of these genetically distinct plants or units of clonal shoots (one with two and the other with three such shoots) were presented in the second slide which was a subplot "nested" within the larger plot of the first slide.
It was also possible, however, that all shoots ("trees") seen here were clones of one genotype (ie. one plant). With this latter possibility, the groups of two or three shoots that were physically disjunct aboveground might be modular units of two or three shoots that arose from one woody rootstock or rhizome. Given the length of horizontal shoots visible aboveground as shown in preceding photographs this growth pattern or spatial arrangement of shoots was quite likely.
Genetic examination such as with DNA analysis would be the only definitive method by which parentage of individual oak shoots could be determined. Even careful tracing of underground shoots through deep excavation would not be definitive (probably not much more definitive than surmise based on trunk clumps).
Some recently shed oak leaves joined those of previous years to add further to the already nearly complete ground coverage by leaves. Although not clearly discernable, therre were numerous shoots of saw greenbriar growing beside trunks and up into crowns of dwarf post oak There were also two small plants of devil's-tongue pricklypear (Opuntia humifusa) growing at base of sand post oak.
Erath County, Texas. Early November, autumnal aspect. Extreme Drought (Palmer Scale). Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem). Scrub variant in K-75 (Cross Timbers). Edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak). Deep Sand range site. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut Plain Cross Timbers Ecoregion, 29e (Griffith et al., 2004).
167. Fall in the sandrough- Species composition and architecture (structure) of a shrubland dominated by scrub oaks (with saw greembriar as associate specdies) known locally as sandrough or sandtangle in the West Cross Timbers of northcentral Texas. This scrubland is the climax range vegetation for this Deep Sand range site. In the monoclimax theory of Clements (1916, 1936) this range plant community that developed on deep, loose sand was postclimax. The more mesic edaphic habitat supported natural vegetation that was a stage or two beyond the average regional or zonal climax, the monoclimax. In polyclimax theory of plant ecologists like Sir Arthur Tansley and in the climax pattern theory of Robert Whittaker (1953) this potential natural vegetation was an edaphic climax. Net conclusion as to the potential natural plant community was the same regardless of sematics.
These two views were "nested" images with the second slide being a closeer-in view of the three-trunked small tree or large shrub at left in the first slide. This plant was a blackjack oak, an overall minor member of the sandrough plant community. The other trees--probably a total of two genetically distinct plants, two genotypes, each with at least two shoots (as in case of center plant) up to at least four shoots (as with clump of trunks at right)--were scrub or sand post oak or Margarete oak.
Erath County, Texas. Early November, autumnal aspect. Extreme Drought (Palmer Scale). Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem). Scrub variant in K-75 (Cross Timbers). Edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak). Deep Sand range site. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut Plain Cross Timbers Ecoregion, 29e (Griffith et al., 2004).
168. Another mess of shoots- Two views of a local stand of Margarete oak or sand, scrub, or dwarf post oak with a plant of mustang grape as well as numerous shoots of saw greenbriar in a shrubland, known locally as sandrough, in a deep sand habitat within the West Cross Timbers of northcentral Texas. This was an example of the Quercus margaretta- Smilax bona nox habitat type if the Daubenmire (1952, 1968) was applied.
Mustang grape is considerably more abundant along edges of sandrough than inside this postclimax range vegetation, but for reasons unknown to this author plants of mustang grape sometimes occurred within local stands of scrub post oak as was the case in the example shown here.
Early phases of leaf fall with nearly complete ground cover by oak leaves of previous year(s) getting deeper with this year's addition.
Erath County, Texas. Early November, autumnal aspect. Extreme Drought (Palmer Scale). Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem). Scrub variant in K-75 (Cross Timbers). Edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak). Deep Sand range site. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut Plain Cross Timbers Ecoregion, 29e (Griffith et al., 2004).
169. A "clearing" in sandrough- A local opening in the deep interior of a sand or scrub post oak-saw greenbriar (dominant and associate species, respectively) shrubland known by local folk as sandrough or sandtangle. Natural openings like this one exist infrequently though consistently throughout sandrough scrub. The opening featured here was photographed at two camera lengths to show the general extent and physiogonomy of "Mother Nature's clearing" (first slide; at greater distance) and, then, details at edge of opening (second slide; closer or shorter distance).
Biological basis of such openings were unknown, but all openings encountered in this scrubland range had small stands of short-statured, extremely scrubby dwarf post oak, especially at margins of openings, such as the one featured in the second slide. It was not known if these scrubby or "runt" shoots would grow to dimensions of mature shoots that surrounded the opening. In open spaces (those free of scrub post oak) within the larger opening (the natural "clearing") dominant plants (dominance varied at local scale or, even, microscale) included little bluestem, sand lovegrass, and mare'stail or horseweed along with the ever-present saw greenbriar.
Erath County, Texas. Early November, autumnal aspect. Extreme Drought (Palmer Scale). Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem). Scrub variant in K-75 (Cross Timbers). Edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak). Deep Sand range site. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut Plain Cross Timbers Ecoregion, 29e (Griffith et al., 2004).
170. Softer ones in an opening- A natural opening within the deep interior of a sand post oak-saw greenbriar shrubland (called sandrough or sandtangle by "natives") on deep, loose sand in the West Cross Timbers of northcentral Texas. Dolminance by herbaceous species varied locally among horseweed or mare'stail, little bluestem, and sand lovegrass.
Horseweed is an annual, rank-growing, comparatively large composite that is a widespread pioneering or colonizing species. Horseweed is particularily common and abundant on disturbed ground such as roadcuts, old fields, cutover forests, and overgrazed ranges. It is a classic r-selected species and a ruderal in resource allocation (= life "straetgy"). Horseweed was the most abundant forb and provided the most foliar cover of any non-grass species. Little bluestem and sand lovegrass are native, perennial bunchgrasses classified as decreasers and the potential herbaceous dominants for this Deep Sand range site.
Erath County, Texas. Early November, autumnal aspect. Extreme Drought (Palmer Scale). Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem). Scrub variant in K-75 (Cross Timbers). Edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak). Deep Sand range site. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut Plain Cross Timbers Ecoregion, 29e (Griffith et al., 2004).
171. Herbaceous and woody in the sand- Edge of a natural opening in a sand post oak-saw greenbriar shrubland called sandtangle in the West Cross Timbers of northcentral Texas. These two slides made up a set of "nested photoplots" that featured a local stand of oak shoots (probably a clonal unit of one oak plant) with numerous plants of mare'stail or horseweed, the most abundant forb, and little bluestem, a co-dominant native perennial grass (sand lovegrass being the other dominant grass), was locally the most common and had the most cover of any herbaceous perennial. Another sporadically important grass was tapered-leaf panicgrass or Lindheimer's rosette panicgrass. Two small plants of Lindheimer's rosettegrass were growing to the immediate right of a conspicuous though heavily grazed plant of sand lovegrass. There were also two small plants of hogwort or hog croton (Croton capitatus) joining these native, perennial grasses.
Range vegetation seen here was late enough (mid-autumn) that a sizeable proportion of the current year's oak leaves had been shed and added to the existing layer of previously fallen leaves that completely covered (nearly so anyway) the soil surface. Shoots of saw greenbriar, though indistinct in these photographs, was ever-present making travel through this postclimax vegetation unpleasant as well as challenging.
The deep, sandy osil of sandrough was such that this edaphic habitat was considerably more mesic and favorable in hot, dry weather so that the potential natural range vegetation was itself more mesic than the regional average. In terminology of the Clementsian monoclimax thoery this range plant community was postclimax.
Erath County, Texas. Early November, autumnal aspect. Extreme Drought (Palmer Scale). Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem). Scrub .ariant in K-75 (Cross Timbers). Edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak). Deep Sand range site. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut Plain Cross Timbers Ecoregion, 29e (Griffith et al., 2004).
172. Seedlings for sure- Local stand of seedlings (definitely not offshoots or clonal shoots) of sand, scrub, or dwarf post or Margarete oak in understorey of a range of sandrough or sandtangle, a shrubland dominated by scrub post oak with saw greenbriar as associate species. Most of the young shoots of Margarete oak presented in this "photoplot" of sandtangle understorey were clearly seedlings though a few of these small shoots might have been clonal offshoots arising from woody rootstocks of adult sand posst oak.
In this sandrough range it was obvious that many shoots of Margarete oak were vegetative shoots (clonal offshoots= modules= ramets) of existing genetic shoots (genotypes= genets). Perhaps a majority to most scrub post oak trunks or boles and crowns in this sandrough community were clonal shoots. This local or "mini-stand" of dwarf post oak shoots was clearly comprised mostly of seedlings as was determined by finding well-rotted shells of acorns next to shoot/root crowns of most of these small oak shoots. Other young shoots appeared to have originated much deeper in this sandy soil thus most likely having originated from underground horizontal oak shoots.
This local group of "baby" shoots of sand post oak was a relatively unique phenomenon or developmental stage in this sandtangle range that was--and historically had been--grazed by both cattle and white-tailed deer.
Some of the oak leaves that littered the ground were recently shed leaves of the current growing season. Other leaves that formed a complete ground cover throughout this shrubland vegettion were from previous years. Two consecutive years of Extreme Drought (Palmer Scale) might have contributed to accumulation of leaves due to reduced leaf decay in absence of plentiful precipitation.
Erath County, Texas. Early November, autumnal aspect.
173. Crooked and armed- Horizontal basal shoots of scrub, sand, or sand post oak with prominent shoot of saw greenbrir (first slide) and with devil's-tongue pricklypear as well as saw greembriar (second slide) in the lower zone of range vegetation known as sandrough, a shrubland dominated by scrup post oak with saw greenbriar as associate species. This potential natural polant community is postclimax in monoclimax theory of Clements (1916, 1936) and an edaphic climax in the polyclimax theory (Tansley, 1926, 1935) and climax pattern theory (Whittaker, 1953).
Note two vertical shoots arising from a larger basal horizontal shoot in a sand post oak in the second slide. Imagine this horizontal shoot being below ground so that the two upright trunks would appear side-by-side. Then project this arrangement to clumps of two, three, four, etc. trunks of scrub post oak as seen above and the clonal nature of these clumps--including the clumps themselves being only a module of a long woody rootstock--becomes apparent in one's mind.
Most of the plentiful oak leaves were those shed in the previous year although some were of the current year's crop that were presently being shed at end of the current growing year in th endless cycle of life in the sandrough.
Erath County, Texas. Early November, autumnal aspect. Extreme Drought (Palmer Scale). Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem). Scrub variant in K-75 (Cross Timbers). Edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak). Deep Sand range site. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut Plain Cross Timbers Ecoregion, 29e (Griffith et al., 2004).
174. Rough passage- A cow's eye view of the range of a shrubland dominated by scrub post oak with saw greenbriar as the associate on deep sand in the West Cross Timbers of northcentral Texas. Devil's-tongue pricklypear was the center of attention in this "photoplot" taken on a bright autumn afternoon under a full-sun sky. This was an unusually large specimen of a species that is more limited in distribution (it prefers an edaphic environment of deep loose sand) than most other Opuntia species in the Cross Timbers-Grand Prairie Region.
Attention was drawn to the heavy cover of oak leaves, all of which at this point in time were from previous years the current year's leaves still being on the sand post oaks. A few of the leaves were, of course those of saw greenbriar. Although not visible in this slide there were also plants of two Cyperaceae species which were presented in the immediately following slide-caption set.
Erath County, Texas. Late October, autumnal aspect. Extreme Drought (Palmer Scale). Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem). Scrub variant in K-75 (Cross Timbers). Edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak). Deep Sand range site. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut Plain Cross Timbers Ecoregion, 29e (Griffith et al., 2004).
175. Grasslikes in the sandrough- Slender flat-sedge or slender umbrella-sedge (Cyperus lupulinus) and bracted oak caric-sedge (Carex cephalophora) left and right, respectively, in the very limited understorey of a sand post oak-dominated scrub (known locally as sandrough) in the West Cross Timbers of northcentral Texas. Saw greenbriar was the associate species of this postclimax or edaphic climax (monoclimax and polyclimax/climax pattern theories, respectively) range vegetation that developed on deep sand.
In striking contrast to almost all other areas of soil surface in this sandrough range this localized spot was relatively free of shed oak leaves. It was not known if the relatively thick cover of oak leaves (see almost all photographs in this section) had a mulching effect on herbaceous species. Such did not seem likely however as there were some grasses and even plants of the annual composite, horseweed, that came up through comparatively dense leaf cover in some locations of this scrubland range. Likewise, it was not known if grazing/browsing by beef cattle and white-tailed deer had eliminated some herbaceous plants.
Erath County, Texas. Late October, autumnal aspect. Extreme Drought (Palmer Scale). Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem). Scrub variant in K-75 (Cross Timbers). Edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak). Deep Sand range site. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut Plain Cross Timbers Ecoregion, 29e (Griffith et al., 2004).
176. Jacked to the gills- Jack O'Latern gilled mushroom (Omphalotus illudens= Clitocybe illudens= Omphalotus olearius), saprophyte, growing on snag of blackjack oak in a sand post oak-saw greenbrier scrubland or dwarf forest in the West Cross Timbers. This fungus is in family Tricholomataceae, order Agaricales. class Basidomycotina.
The unique feature and namesake of Jack O'Latern is derived from the biolumesence of the fruiting bodies, in particular the gills or lamella. This is noted in most mushroom field guides. For example, Metzler and Metzler (1992, p. 143) described this glow or charactristic luminescence as "an eery greenish light". Hence, the descriptive and evocative common name of ghost mushroom. This phenomenon has been much discussed in the scientific literature including (Murrill, 1915; Weitz and Weitz, 2004; Desjardin et al, 2008).
This fungus is poisonous. In a classic study Clark and Smith (1913) determined that the poisonous principle in ghost mushroom was muscarin.
Erath County, Texas. Late October; full-development of fruiting body.
177. Reducers and ghosts in the sandrough- Sporeocarps (fruiting bodies) of Jack O'Latern gilled mushroom or ghost mushroom growing on decaying roots of dead sand post oak and blackjack oak. The common name of ghost mushroom is derived from the glow or bioluminescence emitted from gills of the fruiting bodies of this unusual fungus.
Fungi (interpreted by some botanists as being in their own kingdom, Fungi) comprise one of the larger groups of decomposers or reducers in range ecosystems. These fungus species are saprophytes; in other words, heterotrophs (other nourishing) in contrast to other fungal species that are autotrophs (= free-living or self-nourishing organisms). Some species of bacteria and algae are also decomposers.
Ecologists like Eugene Odum (1971) regarded reducers or decomposers as being the most important or the most critical of the biotic components of range ecosystems. This view seemed hard to reconcile with the fact that photosynthesizing plants are the producers at base of food chains. Nonetheless decomposeres like this saprophytic speciescomprise the detritis food chain that is pivotal to ecosystem function.
Erath County, Texas. Late October; full-development of fruiting body.
178. Spring again in the sandrough- Two "nested photoplots" of a dwarf forest or (depending on perspective) scrubland of a sand post oak-fiddleleaf greenbrier habitat type that featured a shapely blackjack oak with early spring leaves and catkins. Blackjack oak was the associate tree species of this range type.Other range plants present were skunkbush sumac (Rhus aromatica= R. trilobata) seen prominently in the left foreground understorey and, of course, fiddleleaf grenbrier.
Erath County, Texas. Late October, autumnal aspect. Extreme Drought (Palmer Scale). Sandrough fits in FRES No. 15 (Oak-Hickory Ecosystem). Scrub variant in K-75 (Cross Timbers). Edaphic variant of SRM 732 (Cross Timbers, Texas; Little Bluestem-Post Oak). Deep Sand range site. Edaphic variant of Limestone Cut Plain Cross Timbers Ecoregion, 29e (Griffith et al., 2004).
Expanded coverage: there is another form of "sandtangle" or "sandrough", the sand post oak- or maragretta oak-dominated dwarf forest, that is in the East Cross Timbers of north Texas and southern Oklahoma. That East Cross Timbers climax range vegetation is clearly (without question) a dwarf forest with trees of such height plus a unique plant species composition that it could not be interpreted as a shrubland. That potential natural forest vegetation of the East Cross Timbers was included--along with sand post oak-dominated vegetation scrub of the West Cross Timbers--in the Forest and Woodland chapter, entitled, Miscellaneous Forest Types- II.
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