DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES: Amorpha canescens | Leadplant 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION : 
Leadplant is distributed throughout the Great Plains.  It is common from
southeastern Alberta and southern Saskatchewan south to Texas and New
Mexico, and east to Wisconsin, Michigan, and Iowa; but occurs
infrequently westward to eastern Colorado, Utah, and Montana
[8,10,16,30].


ECOSYSTEMS : 
   FRES15  Oak - hickory
   FRES18  Maple - beech - birch
   FRES21  Ponderosa pine
   FRES29  Sagebrush
   FRES35  Pinyon - juniper
   FRES36  Mountain grasslands
   FRES38  Plains grasslands
   FRES39  Prairie


STATES : 
     AR  CO  IA  IN  KS  LA  MI  MN  MS  NE
     NM  ND  OK  SD  TX  WI  WY  AB  MB  ON
     SK


ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS : 
     BADL  BICA  EFMO  INDU  LAME  PIPE
     THRO  WICR  WICA


BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS : 
   13  Rocky Mountain Piedmont
   14  Great Plains
   15  Black Hills Uplift
   16  Upper Missouri Basin and Broken Lands


KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS : 
   K017  Black Hills pine forest
   K019  Arizona pine forest
   K023  Juniper - pinyon woodland
   K056  Wheatgrass - needlegrass shrubsteppe
   K063  Foothills prairie
   K064  Grama - needlegrass - wheatgrass
   K065  Grama - buffalograss
   K066  Wheatgrass - needlegrass
   K067  Wheatgrass - bluestem prairie
   K069  Bluestem - grama prairie
   K070  Sandsage - bluestem prairie
   K074  Bluestem prairie
   K075  Nebraska Sand Hills prairie
   K081  Oak savanna
   K084  Cross Timbers


SAF COVER TYPES : 
    14  Northern pin oak
    40  Post oak - blackjack oak
    42  Bur oak
   236  bur oak
   237  Interior ponderosa pine


SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES : 
NO-ENTRY


HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES : 
Leadplant is a member of various climax grassland plant associations
described for the National Forests of Wyoming, Colorado, and the western
halves of South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas.  These include the
following series:  sand bluestem (Andropogon gerardii var. paucipilus),
prairie sandreed (Calamovilfa longifolia), big bluestem (Andropogon
gerardii var. gerardii), and needle-and-thread grass (Stipa comata)
[21].  In the Black Hills National Forest of South Dakota and Wyoming,
leadplant occurs as a member of two ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa)
habitat types:  ponderosa pine/snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus) and
ponderosa pine/bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa) [19].  There are no
described plant communities for the central and southern Great Plains,
but Weaver and Fitzpatrick [38] called leadplant "perhaps the most
conspicuous characteristic subdominant of upland, tallgrass prairie."

Leadplant is an important shrub in the southern Great Plains Cross
Timbers plant association.  Post oak (Q. stellata) and blackjack oak (Q.
marilandica) dominate.  Primary grasses are little bluestem
(Schizachyrium scoparium), big bluestem, indiangrass (Sorghasturm
nutans), and switchgrass (Panicum virgatum).  Other important shrubs are
smoothleaf sumac (Rhus glabra) and wild plum (Prunus spp.).

Associated species in the central Great Plains are primarily little and
big bluestem, switchgrass, indiangrass, and prairie dropseed (Sporobolus
heterolepis); additional grass species in the Sandhills of Nebraska are
prairie sandreed and sand bluestem.  Important shrubs besides leadplant
include western snowberry (Symphoricarpos occidentalis), inland
ceanothus (Ceanothus ovatus), willow (Salix spp.), gooseberry (Ribes
spp.), and prairie rose (Rosa arkansana) [40].

Dominant grasses in the Northern Great Plains are thickspike wheatgrass
(Elymus lanceolatus), western wheatgrass (Pascopyrum smithii), junegrass
(Koelaria macrantha), green needlegrass (Stipa viridula), western
porcupine grass (S. spartea var. curtiseta), Canada wildrye (Elymus
canadensis), sedges (Carex spp.), and little bluestem.  Leadplant,
fringed sagebrush (Artemisia frigida), western snowberry, russet
buffaloberry (Shepherdia canadensis), silverberry (Elaeagnus commutata),
and rose (Rosa spp.) are among the important shrubs present.  Plains
pricklypear (Opuntia polyacantha) is also a common associate [40].

Related categories for Species: Amorpha canescens | Leadplant