DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES: Leymus cinereus | Basin Wildrye 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION : 
Basin wildrye is distributed from British Columbia south to California
and eastward throughout the Intermountain and Rocky Mountain regions to
the eastern portions of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado [4,19].  It
occurs primarily east of the Cascades in the Pacific Northwest [36] and
east of the Sierra Nevada in California [66].


ECOSYSTEMS : 
   FRES17  Elm - ash - cottonwood
   FRES20  Douglas-fir
   FRES21  Ponderosa pine
   FRES23  Fir - spruce
   FRES28  Western hardwoods
   FRES29  Sagebrush
   FRES30  Desert shrub
   FRES34  Chaparral - mountain shrub
   FRES35  Pinyon - juniper
   FRES36  Mountain grasslands
   FRES38  Plains grasslands
   FRES40  Desert grasslands


STATES : 
     CA  CO  ID  MT  NV  OR  UT  WA  WY  AB
     BC  SK


ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS : 
     BIHO  BICA  BLCA  CEBR  CODA  CRMO
     DEVA  DINO  FOBU  GLAC  GRTE  GRKO
     GRBA  JODA  LABE  NOCA  TICA  WICA
     YELL  ZION


BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS : 
    3  Southern Pacific Border
    4  Sierra Mountains
    5  Columbia Plateau
    6  Upper Basin and Range
    7  Lower Basin and Range
    8  Northern Rocky Mountains
    9  Middle Rocky Mountains
   10  Wyoming Basin
   11  Southern Rocky Mountains
   12  Colorado Plateau
   16  Upper Missouri Basin and Range


KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS : 
   K011  Western ponerosa forest
   K012  Douglas-fir forest
   K015  Western spruce - fir forest
   K016  Eastern ponderosa forest
   K018  Pine - Douglas-fir forest
   K019  Arizona pine forest 
   K021  Southwestern spruce - fir forest
   K023  Juniper - pinyon woodland
   K037  Mountain-mahogany - oak scrub
   K038  Great Basin sagebrush
   K040  Saltbush - greasewood
   K051  Wheatgrass - bluegrass
   K055  Sagebrush steppe
   K056  Wheatgrass - needlegrass shrubsteppe
   K057  Galleta - three-awn shrubsteppe
   K063  Foothills prairie
   K064  Grama - needlegrass - wheatgrass
   K065  Grama - buffalograss
   K066  Wheatgrass - needlegrass
   K067  Wheatgrass - bluestem - needlegrass
   K098  Northern floodplain forest


SAF COVER TYPES : 
   210  Interior Douglas-fir
   217  Aspen
   237  Interior ponderosa pine
   239  Pinyon - juniper


SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES : 
NO-ENTRY


HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES : 
Self-perpetuating stands of basin wildrye are indicative of climax
conditions on saline/alkaline lowland and upland sites within
sagebrush-grassland and salt desert communities throughout the Great
Basin.  Shrubland series utilizing this bunchgrass as a understory
climax indicator include the following:  basin big sagebrush (Artemisia
tridentata ssp. tridentata), mountain big sagebrush (Artemisia
tridentata ssp. vaseyana), black greasewood (Sarcobatus vermiculatus),
and desert snowberry (Symphoricarpos longiflorus).

Published classification schemes listing basin wildrye as a climax
indicator are presented below:

An ecological reconnaissance of the Artemisia steppe on the east central
  Owyhee uplands of Oregon [48]
Grassland and shrubland habitat types of the Shoshone National Forest
  [74]
Grassland and shrubland habitat types of western Montana [50]
Phyto-edaphic relationships and ecotype development of Festuca
  idahoensis in the eastern Oregon habitat types of Artemisia tridentata
  [25]
Presettlement vegetation of part of northwestern Moffat County,
  Colorado, described from remnants [2]
Sagebrush-grass habitat types of southern Idaho [35]
Sagebrush steppe [87]
Steppe vegetation of Washington [21]
Vegetation and soils of Cow Creek Watershed [10]
Vegetation and soils of Crane Spring Waterhsed [11]
Vegetation and soils of Rock Springs Watershed [12]

Related categories for Species: Leymus cinereus | Basin Wildrye