• GENERAL DISTRIBUTION
• ECOSYSTEMS
• STATES
• BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS
• KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS
• SAF COVER TYPES
• SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES
• HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES

GENERAL DISTRIBUTION:

Leafy spurge is a native to Eurasia. It was imported to the United States as a seed impurity around 1827 [105]. In North America, leafy spurge occurs from Alaska east to Nova Scotia and south to Maryland, Indiana, Nebraska, California, and Mexico. It is most common in fields, roadsides, stream valleys, open woodlands, and waste places [35], and is well established in the Northwest [55].  

ECOSYSTEMS [33]:

FRES15 Oak-hickory
FRES17 Elm-ash-cottonwood
FRES18 Maple-beech-birch
FRES19 Aspen-birch
FRES20 Douglas-fir
FRES21 Ponderosa pine
FRES25 Larch
FRES26 Lodgepole pine
FRES29 Sagebrush
FRES35 Pinyon-juniper
FRES36 Mountain grasslands
FRES38 Plains grasslands
FRES39 Prairie
FRES40 Desert grasslands
FRES41 Wet grasslands

STATES:

BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS [9]:

1 Northern Pacific Border
2 Cascade Mountains
3 Southern Pacific Border
4 Sierra Mountains
5 Columbia Plateau
6 Upper Basin and Range
8 Northern Rocky Mountains
9 Middle Rocky Mountains
10 Wyoming Basin
11 Southern Rocky Mountains
12 Colorado Plateau
13 Rocky Mountain Piedmont
14 Great Plains
15 Black Hills Uplift
16 Upper Missouri Basin and Broken Lands

KUCHLER [53] PLANT ASSOCIATIONS:

K008 Lodgepole pine-subalpine forest
K011 Western ponderosa forest
K012 Douglas-fir forest
K014 Grand fir-Douglas-fir forest
K015 Western spruce-fir forest
K016 Eastern ponderosa forest
K017 Black Hills pine forest
K018 Pine-Douglas-fir forest
K019 Arizona pine forest
K023 Juniper-pinyon woodland
K024 Juniper steppe woodland
K028 Mosaic of K002 and K026
K038 Great Basin sagebrush
K047 Fescue-oatgrass
K049 Tule marshes
K050 Fescue-wheatgrass
K051 Wheatgrass-bluegrass
K053 Grama-galleta steppe
K055 Sagebrush steppe
K056 Wheatgrass-needlegrass shrubsteppe
K057 Galleta-threeawn shrubsteppe
K058 Grama-tobosa shrubsteppe
K063 Foothills prairie
K064 Grama-needlegrass-wheatgrass
K066 Wheatgrass-needlegrass
K067 Wheatgrass-bluestem-needlegrass
K068 Wheatgrass-grama-buffalo grass
K069 Bluestem-grama prairie
K070 Sandsage-bluestem prairie
K073 Northern cordgrass prairie
K074 Bluestem prairie
K075 Nebraska Sandhills prairie
K081 Oak savanna
K082 Mosaic of K074 and K100
K102 Beech-maple forest
K106 Northern hardwoods
K107 Northern hardwoods-fir forest

SAF COVER TYPES [27]:

14 Northern pin oak
16 Aspen
18 Paper birch
25 Sugar maple-beech-yellow birch
26 Sugar maple-basswood
27 Sugar maple
39 Black ash-American elm-red maple
42 Bur oak
43 Bear oak
50 Black locust
52 White oak-black oak-northern red oak
55 Northern red oak
58 Yellow-poplar-eastern hemlock
59 Yellow-poplar-white oak-northern red oak
60 Beech-sugar maple
62 Silver maple-American elm
63 Cottonwood
68 Mesquite
109 Hawthorn
110 Black oak
208 Whitebark pine
210 Interior Douglas-fir
212 Western larch
217 Aspen
218 Lodgepole pine
219 Limber pine
220 Rocky Mountain juniper
224 Western hemlock
227 Western redcedar-western hemlock
228 Western redcedar
235 Cottonwood-willow
237 Interior ponderosa pine
238 Western juniper
240 Arizona cypress
242 Mesquite
243 Sierra Nevada mixed conifer
245 Pacific ponderosa pine

SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES [95]:

101 Bluebunch wheatgrass
102 Idaho fescue
104 Antelope bitterbrush-bluebunch wheatgrass
105 Antelope bitterbrush-Idaho fescue
107 Western juniper/big sagebrush/bluebunch wheatgrass
110 Ponderosa pine-grassland
301 Bluebunch wheatgrass-blue grama
302 Bluebunch wheatgrass-Sandberg bluegrass
303 Bluebunch wheatgrass-western wheatgrass
304 Idaho fescue-bluebunch wheatgrass
305 Idaho fescue-Richardson needlegrass
306 Idaho fescue-slender wheatgrass
307 Idaho fescue-threadleaf sedge
308 Idaho fescue-tufted hairgrass
309 Idaho fescue-western wheatgrass
310 Needle-and-thread-blue grama
311 Rough fescue-bluebunch wheatgrass
312 Rough fescue-Idaho fescue
313 Tufted hairgrass-sedge
314 Big sagebrush-bluebunch wheatgrass
315 Big sagebrush-Idaho fescue
319 Bitterbrush-rough fescue
321 Black sagebrush-Idaho fescue
322 Curlleaf mountain-mahogany-bluebunch wheatgrass
323 Shrubby cinquefoil-rough fescue
324 Threetip sagebrush-Idaho fescue
401 Basin big sagebrush
402 Mountain big sagebrush
403 Wyoming big sagebrush
412 Juniper-pinyon woodland
422 Riparian
504 Juniper-pinyon pine woodland
601 Bluestem prairie
602 Bluestem-prairie sandreed
603 Prairie sandreed-needlegrass
605 Sandsage prairie
606 Wheatgrass-bluestem-needlegrass
607 Wheatgrass-needlegrass
608 Wheatgrass-grama-needlegrass
609 Wheatgrass-grama
610 Wheatgrass
613 Fescue grassland
614 Crested wheatgrass
615 Wheatgrass-saltgrass-grama
710 Bluestem prairie
711 Bluestem-sacahuista prairie
722 Sand sagebrush-mixed prairie
802 Missouri prairie
803 Missouri glades

HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES:

Leafy spurge is an ecological generalist.  Studies conducted in Saskatchewan and the United States found that it can occur in many plant associations [10,103].  Evaluations of plant associates within croplands, abandoned fields, grass pastures, native grasslands, and areas among trees and shrubs documented associations with 69 other plant species [10].

Native species are reduced where leafy spurge and other introduced species occur in mixed-grass prairie. Plant species cover (%) within uninvaded blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis)-obtuse sedge (Carex obtusata)-little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) mixed-grass prairie and within adjacent mixed-grass prairie invaded by exotic herbaceous species is given below. Associated prairie grasses include porcupine grass (Hesperostipa spartea) and junegrass (Koeleria spp.). Exotic Eurasian species include leafy spurge, Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis), and smooth brome (Bromus inermis). Values are means and 1 standard deviation [8].