DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES: Polystichum munitum | Western Sword Fern 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION : 
Western sword fern grows along the west coast from southeastern Alaska
to Santa Barbara County, California, and eastward through Washington and
northern Idaho into northwest Montana [39,40,69].  Disjunct populations
have been found in South Dakota and on Guadalupe Island off Baja
California [41,69,78].  In British Columbia, it is common west of the
Coast Mountains and on the Queen Charlotte Islands [28].


ECOSYSTEMS : 
   FRES20  Douglas-fir
   FRES22  Western white pine
   FRES23  Fir - spruce
   FRES24  Hemlock - Sitka spruce
   FRES25  Larch
   FRES27  Redwood
   FRES28  Western hardwoods


STATES : 
     AK  CA  ID  MT  OR  SD  WA  BC  MEXICO


ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS : 
     GLAC  NOCA  OLYM


BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS : 
   1  Northern Pacific Border
   2  Cascade Mountains
   3  Southern Pacific Border
   8  Northern Rocky Mountains


KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS : 
   K001  Spruce - cedar - hemlock forest
   K002  Cedar - hemlock - Douglas-fir forest
   K003  Silver fir - Douglas-fir forest
   K004  Fir - hemlock forest
   K005  Mixed conifer forest
   K006  Redwood forest
   K012  Douglas-fir forest
   K013  Cedar - hemlock - pine forest
   K014  Grand fir - Douglas-fir forest
   K025  Alder - ash forest
   K026  Oregon oakwoods
   K029  California mixed evergreen forest


SAF COVER TYPES : 
   211  White fir
   212  Western larch
   213  Grand fir
   215  Western white pine
   221  Red alder
   222  Black cottonwood - willow
   223  Sitka spruce
   224  Western hemlock
   225  Western hemlock - Sitka spruce
   226  Coastal true fir - hemlock
   227  Western redcedar - western hemlock
   228  Western redcedar
   229  Pacific Douglas-fir
   230  Douglas-fir - western hemlock
   231  Port Orford-cedar
   232  Redwood
   233  Oregon white oak
   234  Douglas-fir - tanoak - Pacific madrone


SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES : 
NO-ENTRY


HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES : 
Western sword fern frequently indicates productive, moist forest habitat
types [18,27,33,37].  It may also indicate deep soils [36].  Western
swordfern is an indicator of high quality sites for black cottonwood
(Populus trichocarpa) [61] and Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) [22].
Published classification schemes listing western sword fern as an
indicator species or as a dominant part of vegetation are presented
below:

Forest types of the North Cascades National Park Service Complex [1]
Plant communities and environmental interrelationships in a portion of
  the Tillamook Burn, northwestern Oregon [7]
Synecological features of a natural headland prairie on the Oregon coast [14]
Classification of montane forest community types in the Cedar River
  drainage of western Washington [16]
A preliminary classification of the forest communities in the central
  portion of the western Cascades in Oregon [18]
Natural vegetation of Oregon and Washington [22]
Ecoclass coding system for the Pacific Northwest plant associations [29]
Plant association and management guide for the western hemlock zone: Mt.
  Hood National Forest [33]
Vegetation mapping and community description of a small western Cascade
  watershed [35]
Plant association and management guide: Willamette National Forest [37]
Forest ecosystems of Mount Rainier National Park [51]
The Quercus garryana forests of the Willamette Valley, Oregon [68].

Related categories for Species: Polystichum munitum | Western Sword Fern