DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES: Poa cusickii | Cusick's Bluegrass 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION : 
Cusick's bluegrass occurs from Alberta and Saskatchewan southward to
North Dakota, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, and California [13,15,35].

Distributions of subspecies are [13,35]:

Poa cusckii ssp. cusickii - central Washington east to central Idaho and south 
                            to northern Nevada and east-central California
P. c. ssp. epilis - British Columbia and extreme western Saskatchewan
                    south to western Montana, eastern Idaho and the
                    Coast Ranges of Washington and Oregon; isolated populations
                    in the Cascade Range of Oregon and the Sierra Nevada
                    of California, and in northern Nevada, north-central
                    Wyoming, north-central Utah, and central Colorado 
P. c. ssp. pallida - British Columbia east to Saskatchewan and south to
                     western North Dakota, northern Colorado, Utah, and
                     Nevada, and extreme eastern California
P. c. ssp. purpurascens - southern British Columiba through the Coast
                          Ranges to northern California; rare in the
                          Sierra Nevada


ECOSYSTEMS : 
   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
   FRES37  Mountain meadows
   FRES38  Plains grasslands


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


ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS : 
     BICA  CODA  CRLA  FOBU  GLAC  GRTE
     LABE  NOCA  YELL


BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS : 
    1  Northern Pacific Border
    2  Cascade Mountains
    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
   16  Upper Missouri Basin and Broken Lands


KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS : 
   K011  Western ponderosa pine forest
   K012  Douglas-fir forest
   K015  Western spruce - fir forest
   K017  Black Hills pine forest
   K018  Pine - Douglas-fir forest
   K020  Spruce - fir - Douglas-fir forest
   K021  Southwestern spruce - fir forest
   K023  Juniper - pinyon woodland
   K024  Juniper steppe woodland
   K037  Mountain-mahogany - oak scrub
   K038  Great Basin sagebrush
   K040  Saltbush - greasewood
   K050  Fescue-wheatgrass
   K051  Wheatgrass - bluegrass
   K055  Sagebrush steppe
   K056  Wheatgrass - needlegrass shrubsteppe
   K063  Foothills prairie
   K064  Grama - needlegrass - wheatgrass
   K065  Grama - buffalograss
   K066  Wheatgrass - needlegrass
   K098  Northern floodplain forest


SAF COVER TYPES : 
   206  Engelmann spruce - subalpine fir
   210  Interior Douglas-fir
   217  Aspen
   220  Rocky Mountain juniper
   237  Interior ponderosa pine
   238  Western juniper
   239  Pinyon - juniper


SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES : 
   101  Bluebunch wheatgrass
   102  Idaho fescue
   103  Green fescue
   104  Antelope bitterbrush-bluebunch wheatgrass
   105  Antelope bitterbrush-Idaho fescue
   106  Bluegrass scabland
   107  Western juniper/big sagebrush/bluebunch wheatgrass
   109  Ponderosa pine shrubland
   110  Ponderosa pine-grassland
   210  Bitterbrush
   216  Montane meadows
   302  Bluebunch wheatgrass-Sandberg bluegrass
   303  Bluebunch wheatgrass-western wheatgrass
   304  Idaho fescue-bluebunch wheatgrass
   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
   316  Big sagebrush-rough fescue
   317  Bitterbrush-bluebunch wheatgrass
   318  Bitterbrush-Idaho fescue
   319  Bitterbrush-rough fescue
   320  Black sagebrush-bluebunch wheatgrass
   321  Black sagebrush-Idaho fescue
   322  Curlleaf mountain-mahogany-bluebunch wheatgrass
   324  Threetip sagebrush-Idaho fescue
   401  Basin big sagebrush
   402  Mountain big sagebrush
   403  Wyoming big sagebrush
   404  Threetip sagebrush
   405  Black sagebrush
   411  Aspen woodland
   412  Juniper-pinyon woodland
   414  Salt desert shrub
   415  Curlleaf mountain-mahogany
   416  True mountain-mahogany
   501  Saltbush-greasewood
   504  Juniper-pinyon pine woodland
   607  Wheatgrass-needlegrass
   612  Sagebrush-grass


HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES : 
Cusick's bluegrass is a minor component of most plant communities in
which it occurs [4].  It dominates some eastern Washington, Oregon, and
California plant communities, however [18,43].  Cusick's bluegrass is
dominant on some xeric meadows in eastern Oregon [43].  A big
sagebrush-silver sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata-A. cana)/Cusick's
bluegrass plant association occurs in the Ochoco Mountains and Basin of
Oregon and the Warner Mountains of California [18,19].  A list of
publications describing plant communities dominated by Cusick's
bluegrass follows.

Vegetation types of Utah [1]
Riparian zone associations: Deschutes, Ochoco, Fremont, and Winema
  National Forests [18]
Use of geomorphology in the classification of riparian plant
  associations in mountainous landscapes of central Oregon, U.S.A. [19]
Plant associations of the central Oregon Pumice Zone [44]

Cusick's bluegrass meadows in Oregon associate with lodgepole pine
(Pinus contorta) forests upslope and more mesic meadows downslope.
Downslope mesic meadows are usually dominated by Kentucky bluegrass (Poa
pratensis) and/or tufted hairgrass (Deschampsia cespitosa).  Flora on
Cusick's bluegrass meadows are more diverse than on downslope meadows.
Plants commonly found in Cusick's bluegrass meadows include California
oatgrass (Danthonia californica), slender wheatgrass (Elymus
trachycaulus), prairie junegrass (Koeleria macrantha), slenderbeak sedge
(Carex athrostachya), threadleaf sedge (C. tilifolia), analogue sedge
(C. simulata), western yarrow (Achillea millifolium), western aster
(Aster occidentalis), and pussytoes (Antennaria spp.) [43,44].

Associates in the bluebunch wheatgrass (Pseudoroegneria
spicata)-Cusick's bluegrass mountain grasslands of Utah include
Sandberg bluegrass (Poa secunda), Indian ricegrass (Oryzopsis
hymenoides), needle-and-thread grass (Stipa comata), sand dropseed
(Sporobolus cryptandrus), globemallow (Sphaeralcea spp.), phlox (Phlox
spp.), and boreal sweetvetch (Hedysarum boreale ssp. boreale) [1].

Cusick's bluegrass occurs in shadscale (Atriplex confertifolia)-
bottlebrush squirreltail (Elymus elymoides) communities of eastern
Oregon.  Sandberg bluegrass and cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) are also
common in the community [17].

Related categories for Species: Poa cusickii | Cusick's Bluegrass