DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES: Scolochloa festucacea | Whitetop 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION : 
Whitetop has a circumpolar distribution.  In North America, it occurs
primarily in the Northern Great Plains and Prairie Pothole region of the
United States and Canada from Nebraska and Iowa north through Manitoba,
Saskatchewan, and Alberta to the Northwest Territories.  Disjunct
populations occur in eastern Oregon, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, and Alaska
[13,14,16,17,19,23].


ECOSYSTEMS : 
   FRES17  Elm - ash - cottonwood
   FRES37  Mountain meadows
   FRES38  Plains grasslands
   FRES39  Prairie
   FRES41  Wet grasslands


STATES : 
     AK  IA  MN  MT  NE  ND  OR  SD  UT  WY
     AB  BC  MB  NT  SK


ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS : 
     THRO  YELL


BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS : 
    5  Columbia Plateau
    8  Northern Rocky Mountains
    9  Middle Rocky Mountains
   14  Great Plains
   16  Upper Missouri Basin and Broken Lands


KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS : 
   K049  Tule marshes
   K066  Wheatgrass - needlegrass
   K067  Wheatgrass - bluestem - needlegrass
   K074  Bluestem prairie
   K075  Nebraska Sandhills prairie
   K098  Northern floodplain forest


SAF COVER TYPES : 
NO-ENTRY


SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES : 
NO-ENTRY


HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES : 
Whitetop occurs in emergent communities of seasonally flooded wetlands.
It often occurs in bands along the shore, bordered by cattail (Typha
spp.) or bulrush (Scirpus spp.) in deeper water and slough sedge (Carex
atherodes) on the shallower, drier side [36].  It also occurs in shallow
basins within common reed (Phragmites australis) stands [44].

Whitetop forms monospecific stands in moderately saline wetlands.  It is
not as likely to attain dominance in fresh or saltwater wetlands [45].

Whitetop is most commonly associated with slough sedge [3,6,36].  Other
important associates include common spikerush (Eleocharis macrostachya),
American sloughgrass (Beckmannia syzigachne), American mannagrass
(Glyceria grandis), and bluejoint reedgrass (Calamagrostis canadensis)
[4,25,36].  Minor associates include perennial sow thistle (Sonchus
arvensis), Canada thistle (Cirsium arvense), smartweed (Polygonum spp.),
field mint (Mentha arvensis), rough bugleweed (Lycopus asper), marsh
hedgenettle (Stachys palustris), and Canada germander (Teucrium
canadense) [33].

Whitetop is listed as a dominant or codominant in the following
publications:

1.  Landscape classification and plant successional trends in the
      Peace-Athabasca Delta [4]
2.  Riparian dominance types of Montana [15]
3.  The vegetation of the Canadian prairie provinces. III. Aquatic and
      semi-aquatic vegetation [26] 
4.  The vegetation of the Canadian prairie provinces. III. Aquatic and
      semi-aquatic vegetation, Part 2.  Freshwater marshes and bogs [27]
5.  The vegetation of Alberta [32]

Related categories for Species: Scolochloa festucacea | Whitetop