Name:
Festuca campestris - Festuca idahoensis - Pseudoroegneria spicata Central Rocky Mountain Foothill Grassland Group
Reference:
NatureServe Biotics 2019
Description:
These grasslands of the northern Rocky Mountains are found at lower montane to foothill elevations in the mountains and large valleys of northwestern Wyoming and western Montana, west through Idaho into the Blue Mountains of Oregon, and north into the Okanagan and Fraser plateaus of British Columbia and the Canadian Rockies. They also occur to the east in the central Montana mountain "islands" foothills, as well as the Rocky Mountain Front and Big and Little Belt ranges. They also extend along the eastern slopes of the Alberta Rockies. The most important species are cool-season perennial bunchgrasses and forbs (>25% cover), sometimes with a sparse (<10% cover) shrub layer. <i>Festuca campestris</i> and <i>Festuca idahoensis</i> are dominants, and <i>Pseudoroegneria spicata</i> occurs as a codominant, as well as a diversity of other native grasses. To the north, <i>Danthonia parryi</i> becomes codominant. Forb diversity is typically high in both mesic and dry aspects of this group. A soil crust of lichen covers almost all open soil between clumps of grasses; <i>Cladonia</i> and <i>Peltigera</i> species are the most common lichens. Unvegetated mineral soil is commonly found between clumps of grass and the lichen cover. <i>Festuca campestris</i> is easily eliminated by grazing and does not occur in all areas of this group.<br /><br />This group also includes grasslands commonly known as "Palouse Prairie." These northern lower montane and valley grasslands represent a shift in the precipitation regime from summer monsoons and cold snowy winters found in the Southern Rockies to predominantly dry summers and winter precipitation. The Palouse region is characterized by rolling topography composed of loess hills and plains over basalt plains. The climate of this region has warm-hot, dry summers and cool, wet winters. Annual precipitation is high, 38-76 cm (15-30 inches). The soils are typically deep, well-developed, and old.<br /><br />Outside of the Palouse Prairie region, these grasslands are influenced by shorter summers, colder winters, and young soils derived from recent glacial and alluvial material. In the eastern portion of its range in Montana, winter precipitation is replaced by a huge spring peak in precipitation. Elevations range from 300 to 1650 m, ranging from small meadows to large open parks surrounded by conifers in the lower montane, to extensive foothill and valley grasslands below the lower treeline. Many of these valleys may have been primarily sage-steppe with patches of grassland in the past, but because of land-use history post-settlement (herbicide, grazing, fire suppression, pasturing, etc.), they have been converted to grassland-dominated areas. Soils are relatively deep, fine-textured, often with coarse fragments, and non-saline, often with a microphytic crust.<br /><br />In Alberta, this group occurs along the lower and eastern flanks of the Foothills Geologic Belt, primarily in the Foothills Fescue Grassland and Foothills Parkland Natural subregions. Glaciation and bedrock topography in combination result in a complex physiography from sloping lower foothills to hummocky to rolling uplands, mainly on glacial till, with significant lacustrine materials in valleys. Elevation ranges from 500 to 1525 m. At upper elevations, stands may be small-patch grasslands on southern slopes between <i>Populus tremuloides</i> woodlands or <i>Salix bebbiana</i> shrublands becoming quite extensive on moister sites at lower elevation. Soils are deep, usually Black Chernozems.
Accession Code:
urn:lsid:vegbank.org:commConcept:40041-{0BE18B68-6EB8-4A5F-B67F-563E4C3F9F36}
Plot-observations of this Community Concept:
0
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