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Dryas integrifolia - Carex spp. Alpine Dwarf-shrub Meadow | NatureServe Biotics 2019
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Name: Dryas integrifolia - Carex spp. Alpine Dwarf-shrub Meadow
Reference: NatureServe Biotics 2019
Description: This association is documented only from the alpine zone of the Big Snowy Mountains of north-central Montana, though reconnaissance information places it as well in the Tobacco Root Range of southwestern Montana. Stands occur from 2360-2700 m (7750-8850 feet) elevation on gently sloping topography developed on Madison Limestone. This substrate is resistant to chemical weathering, but has been acted upon by frost to produce stepped terraces, rock polygons, sorted/non-sorted frost boils, and 'spotted tundra' (oval, spaced mats of <i>Dryas integrifolia</i> surrounded by rock rubble) and solifluction lobes on lee slopes. Soils are shallow, alkaline, cobbly and covered by a layer of gravels and rock fragments. The mat-forming dwarf-shrub <i>Dryas integrifolia</i> and turf-forming and perennial sedge <i>Carex rupestris</i> are diagnostic for the type and dominate small vegetated patches that are regularly interspersed in a matrix of unvegetated to sparsely vegetated rocky ground. <i>Carex scirpoidea ssp. pseudoscirpoidea, Saxifraga oppositifolia, Polygonum viviparum, Oxytropis sericea, Androsace chamaejasme</i> and <i>Lloydia serotina</i> have high constancy but their individual cover seldom exceeds 5%. This association, in both floristic and environmental param (with some local variation in the forb component), is highly similar to ~<i>Dryas octopetala - Carex rupestris</i> Alpine Dwarf-shrub Meadow (CEGL001892)$$ which is found from the Canadian Rockies south to Colorado. 
Accession Code: urn:lsid:vegbank.org:commConcept:30799-{CED03CE3-0154-4206-B4E1-4158A3FFA3C0}
Plot-observations of this Community Concept: 0
      Party Perspective according to: NatureServe (organization)
Perspective from: 05-Aug-1993 to: ongoing
      Names:   UID: ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.683989 NatureServe ExplorerNatureServe Explorer logo
  Code: CEGL001890
  Translated: Entireleaf Mountain-avens - Sedge species Alpine Dwarf-shrub Meadow
  Scientific: Dryas integrifolia - Carex spp. Alpine Dwarf-shrub Meadow
(convergence) and Synonyms:
(similar) Dryas integrifolia - Carex spp. Dwarf-shrub Herbaceous Vegetation
(similar) CEGL001890
(similar) Dryas integrifolia - Carex spp. Dwarf-shrub Herbaceous Vegetation