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

GENERAL DISTRIBUTION:

Bluebunch wheatgrass is distributed throughout the West. It occurs east of the Coast Ranges from Alaska south through California and New Mexico and east to Saskatchewan, Michigan, and Texas [31,137,155].

ECOSYSTEMS:

FRES10 White-red-jack pine
FRES11 Spruce-fir
FRES18 Maple-beech-birch
FRES19 Aspen-birch
FRES20 Douglas-fir
FRES21 Ponderosa pine
FRES23 Fir-spruce
FRES25 Larch
FRES26 Lodgepole pine
FRES28 Western hardwoods
FRES29 Sagebrush
FRES30 Desert shrub
FRES34 Chaparral-mountain shrub
FRES35 Pinyon-juniper
FRES36 Mountain grasslands
FRES37 Mountain meadows
FRES38 Plains grasslands
FRES39 Prairie

STATES:

AK   AZ   CA   CO   ID   MI   MT   NE   NV   NM   ND   OR
SD   TX    UT   WA   WY

AB   BC   SK   YK

BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS:

 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
14 Great Plains
15 Black Hills Uplift
16 Upper Missouri Basin and Broken Lands

KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS:

K010 Ponderosa shrub forest
K011 Western ponderosa forest
K012 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
K020 Spruce-fir-Douglas-fir forest
K021 Southwestern spruce-fir forest
K022 Great Basin pine forest
K023 Juniper-pinyon woodland
K024 Juniper steppe woodlands
K029 California mixed evergreen forest
K030 California oakwoods
K031 Oak-juniper woodlands
K032 Transition between K031 and K037
K033 Chaparral
K037 Mountain-mahogany-oak scrub
K038 Great Basin sagebrush
K039 Blackbrush
K044 Creosotebush-tarbush
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
K067 Wheatgrass-bluestem-needlegrass
K068 Wheatgrass-grama-buffalograss
K069 Bluestem-grama prairie
K093 Great Lakes spruce-fir forest
K095 Great Lakes pine forest
K106 Northern hardwoods
K107 Northern hardwoods-fir forest
K108 Northern hardwoods-spruce forest

SAF COVER TYPES:

210 Interior Douglas-fir
218 Lodgepole pine
219 Limber pine
220 Rocky Mountain juniper
237 Interior ponderosa pine
238 Western juniper
239 Pinyon-juniper

SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES:

101 Bluebunch wheatgrass
102 Idaho fescue
104 Antelope bitterbrush-bluebunch wheatgrass
105 Antelope bitterbrush-Idaho fescue
107 Western juniper/big sagebrush/bluebunch wheatgrass
108 Alpine Idaho fescue
109 Ponderosa pine shrubland
110 Ponderosa pine-grassland
210 Bitterbrush
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
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
406 Low sagebrush
408 Other sagebrush types
412 Juniper-pinyon woodland
413 Gambel oak
414 Salt desert shrub
415 Curlleaf mountain-mahogany
416 True mountain-mahogany
417 Littleleaf mountain-mahogany
419 Bittercherry
421 Chokecherry-serviceberry-rose
503 Arizona chaparral
504 Juniper-pinyon pine woodland
508 Creosotebush-tarbush
509 Transition between oak-juniper woodland and mahogany-oak association
606 Wheatgrass-bluestem-needlegrass
607 Wheatgrass-needlegrass
608 Wheatgrass-grama-needlegrass
609 Wheatgrass-grama
610 Wheatgrass
611 Blue grama-buffalograss
612 Sagebrush-grass
613 Fescue grassland
614 Crested wheatgrass
615 Wheatgrass-saltgrass-grama
704 Blue grama-western wheatgrass
705 Blue grama-galleta
706 Blue grama-sideoats grama
707 Blue grama-sideoats grama-black grama
733 Juniper-oak
735 Sideoats grama-sumac-juniper
908 Fescue
914 Mesic sedge-grass-herb meadow tundra
915 Mixed herb-herbaceous

HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES:

Bluebunch wheatgrass appears in many habitats, including sagebrush (Artemisia spp.), pinyon-juniper (Pinus-Juniperus spp.), mountain brush, quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides), ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) rocky slopes, plains, dry, open woods, dry slopes, canyons, and openings in fir-spruce (Abies-Picea spp.) communities [137,155.

Vegetation typings describing plant communities in which bluebunch wheatgrass is a dominant species include:

Old-growth forests of the Canadian Rocky Mountain National Parks [1]
Classification of the forest vegetation of Wyoming [6]
Classification of the forest vegetation of Colorado by habitat type and community type [7]
Distribution of plant communities in southeastern Montana badlands [52]
Forest vegetation of northern Idaho and adjacent Washington and its bearing on concepts of vegetation classification [80]
Steppe vegetation of Washington [82]
Vegetation-soil units in the central Oregon juniper zone [96]
Plant communities and habitat types in the Lava Beds National Monument, California [105]
Native woodland ecology and habitat classifications of southwestern North Dakota [113]
Plant communities of the Blue Mountains in eastern Oregon and southeastern Washington [119]
Upland forest and woodland habitat types of the Missouri Plateau, Great Plains Province [124]
Forest vegetation of the Bighorn Mountains, Wyoming: a habitat type classification [139]
A sagebrush community type classification for mountainous northeastern Nevada rangelands [147]
Coniferous forest habitat types of northern Utah [170]
Grassland and shrubland habitat types of western Montana [185]
Forest habitat types of Montana [196]
Western-montane plant communities and forest ecosystem perspectives [215]
Forest habitat types of central Idaho [216]
Forested plant associations of the Okanogan National Forest [229]
Grassland types of south central Montana [233]

In Nevada, bluebunch wheatgrass is a community dominant in the black sagebrush (A. nova)/bluebunch, the Utah juniper (J. osteosperma)/black sagebrush/bluebunch wheatgrass, the singleleaf pinyon (Pinus monophylla)/Utah juniper (J. osteosperma)/black sagebrush/bluebunch wheatgrass, big sagebrush (A. tridentata)/bluebunch wheatgrass, and Utah juniper/big sagebrush/bluebunch wheatgrass communities [35,36,37,].

Bluebunch wheatgrass appears throughout Montana in limber pine (P. flexilis)/bluebunch wheatgrass, ponderosa pine/bluebunch wheatgrass, and Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii)/bluebunch wheatgrass habitat types [16].

Bluebunch wheatgrass appears in the Douglas-fir /common juniper (J. communis)/bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) open forest type in Alberta, Canada, with russet buffaloberry (Shepherdia canadensis), white spirea (Spiraea betulifolia), prickly rose (Rosa acicularis), and Rocky Mountain juniper (J. scopulorum), wooly groundsel (Senecio canus), Saskatoon serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia), and pinegrass (Calamagrostis rubescens) [1].

Bluebunch wheatgrass is a dominant in the Douglas-fir/ponderosa pine/bluebunch wheatgrass type in Alberta, Canada, on subxeric to xeric, southerly and westerly aspects of colluvial and morainal landforms with poorly developed Regosolic soils, with spreading dogbane (Apocynum androsaemifolium), rubber rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus nauseosus), and Saskatoon serviceberry [1].

Bluebunch wheatgrass appears in Wyoming in the limber pine/Idaho fescue habitat type with spike fescue (Leucopoa kingii), arrowleaf balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagittata), and tapertip hawksbeard (Crepis acuminata); in the limber pine/spike fescue type with prairie Junegrass (Koeleria macrantha), Cusick's bluegrass (Poa cusickii), Ross sedge (Carex rossii), timber milkvetch (Astragalus miser), and sticky pulsatilla (Pulsatilla ludoviciana); in the ponderosa pine/Idaho fescue type with pigweed amaranth (Amaranthus albus), threadleaf sedge (C. filifolia), and western yarrow (Achillea millefolium); and in the Douglas-fir/western snowberry (Symphoricarpos oreophilus) type with big sagebrush and wax currant (Ribes cereum) [6].

Bluebunch wheatgrass appears as a dominant in the ponderosa pine/bluebunch wheatgrass habitat type in warm, very dry sites in Wyoming, with red threeawn (Aristida purpurea), threadleaf sedge, fringed sagebrush (A. frigida), and Nuttall violet (Viola nuttalli) [6].

On the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory Site of the upper Snake River Plain in southeastern Idaho, bluebunch wheatgrass appears with big sagebrush, rubber rabbitbrush, green rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus viscidiflorus), bottlebrush squirreltail, Indian ricegrass (Achnatherum hymenoides) and needle-and-thread grass (Hesperostipa comata) [12]. At higher elevations in Idaho, bluebunch wheatgrass appears with Utah juniper, big sagebrush, antelope bitterbrush (Purshia tridentata), threetip sagebrush (Artemisia tripartita), needle-and-thread grass, Thurber's needlegrass (Stipa thurberiana), and Sandberg bluegrass (Poa secunda).

In the Blue Mountains of Oregon, bluebunch wheatgrass dominates the bluebunch wheatgrass plants series, which includes Sandberg's bluegrass, red threeawn, milkvetches (Astragalus spp.), Wyeth's buckwheat (Eriogonum heracloides), and plains prickly-pear (Opuntia polyacantha) [3].

In Colorado, bluebunch wheatgrass appears in the Rocky Mountain juniper/bluebunch wheatgrass habitat type with big sagebrush, blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis), Indian ricegrass, bottlebrush squirreltail, and bluebells (Mertensia spp.) [7].

Related categories for SPECIES: Pseudoroegneria spicata | Bluebunch Wheatgrass