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

GENERAL DISTRIBUTION:

Mountain big sagebrush occurs from southern British Columbia and Alberta south to California, northern Arizona and northern New Mexico, west into central Oregon and Washington, and east into Montana, Wyoming and Colorado [11,53,56,71,86,97]. Small populations of mountain big sagebrush have been reported as far east as the Dakotas and Nebraska [5,47,61].

ECOSYSTEMS [44]:

FRES20 Douglas-fir
FRES21 Ponderosa pine
FRES23 Fir-spruce
FRES26 Lodgepole pine
FRES29 Sagebrush
FRES30 Desert shrub
FRES34 Chaparral-mountain shrub
FRES35 Pinyon-juniper
FRES36 Mountain grasslands

STATES:

AZ	CA	CO	ID	MT	NE	NV
NM	ND	OR	SD	UT	WA	WY
AB	BC

BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS [9]:

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

KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS [66] :

K005 Mixed conifer forest
K008 Lodgepole pine-subalpine forest
K010 Ponderosa shrub forest
K011 Western ponderosa forest
K012 Douglas-fir forest
K015 Western spruce-fir forest
K018 Pine-Douglas-fir forest
K019 Arizona pine forest
K020 Spruce-fir-Douglas-fir forest
K022 Great Basin pine forest
K023 Juniper-pinyon woodland
K024 Juniper steppe woodland
K026 Oregon oakwoods
K028 Mosaic of K002 and K026
K032 Transition between K031 and K037
K037 Mountain-mahogany-oak scrub
K038 Great Basin sagebrush
K039 Blackbrush
K051 Wheatgrass-bluegrass
K055 Sagebrush steppe
K056 Wheatgrass-needlegrass shrubsteppe
K063 Foothills prairie
K064 Grama-needlegrass-wheatgrass

SAF COVER TYPES [39]:

208 Whitebark pine
210 Interior Douglas-fir
211 White fir
218 Lodgepole pine
219 Limber pine
220 Rocky Mountain juniper
237 Interior ponderosa pine
238 Western juniper
239 Pinyon-juniper
247 Jeffrey pine
256 California mixed subalpine

SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES [112]:

101 Bluebunch wheatgrass
102 Idaho fescue
104 Antelope bitterbrush-bluebunch wheatgrass
105 Antelope bitterbrush-Idaho fescue
107 Western juniper/big sagebrush/bluebunch wheatgrass
109 Ponderosa pine shrubland
110 Ponderosa pine-grassland
209 Montane shrubland
210 Bitterbrush
212 Blackbush
302 Bluebunch wheatgrass-Sandberg bluegrass
303 Bluebunch wheatgrass-western wheatgrass
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
411 Aspen woodland
412 Juniper-pinyon woodland
413 Gambel oak
415 Curlleaf mountain-mahogany
416 True mountain-mahogany
420 Snowbrush
421 Chokecherry-serviceberry-rose
504 Juniper-pinyon woodland
509 Transition between oak-juniper woodland and mahogany-oak association
612 Sagebrush-grass

HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES:

Mountain big sagebrush occurs, often as a dominant in shrublands or codominant in savannah, over a range of habitats from montane parklands to warm desert fringes in western North America. This species is a common component of shrub patches in arid grasslands [60,70,89,108,127]. It occurs widely throughout Great Basin pinyon-juniper woodlands dominated by true pinyon (Pinus edulis), singleleaf pinyon (P. monophylla), and Utah juniper (Juniperus osteosperma) [123]. Mountain big sagebrush has been reported in association with numerous other tree species, including quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) [20,26,87,89], ponderosa pine (P. ponderosa) [53,60,100,108], lodgepole pine (P. contorta) [6,26], Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) [53,100], limber pine (P. flexilis) [6,53,100,101], subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa) [78], and whitebark pine (P. albicaulis) [6,90,122]. Mountain big sagebrush may also occur in association with white fir (A. concolor) and Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii) [122].

Common plant associates in Idaho and Montana include Wood's rose (Rosa woodsii), mountain snowberry (Symphoricarpos oreophilus), green rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus viscidiflorus), antelope bitterbrush (Purshia tridentata), and Rocky Mountain juniper. Associated grasses and forbs include Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis), bluebunch wheatgrass (Pseudoroegneria spicata), Idaho fescue (Festuca idahoensis), cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum), prairie Junegrass (Koeleria macrantha) green needlegrass (Nassella viridula), needle-and-thread grass (Hesperostipa comata), Sandberg bluegrass (Poa secunda), and bottlebrush squirreltail (Elymus elymoides) [63,70,84,147].

Common associated species reported for central and eastern Oregon and Washington are western juniper (J. occidentalis), ponderosa pine, Wyoming big sagebrush, gray low sagebrush (A. arbuscula ssp. arbuscula), antelope bitterbrush, wax currant (Ribes cereum), Idaho fescue, bottlebrush squirreltail, bluebunch wheatgrass, Sandberg bluegrass, Kentucky bluegrass, basin wildrye (Leymus cinereus), and cheatgrass [28,108,127,148].

In Wyoming sagebrush steppe communities, mountain big sagebrush is commonly associated with Idaho fescue, antelope bitterbrush, needle-and-thread grass, spike fescue (Leucopoa kingii), sulphur eriogonum (Eriogonum umbellatum var. subalpinum) and silvery lupine (Lupinus argentius) [6,19,20].

Mountain big sagebrush is the most common sagebrush in the extensive Great Basin pinyon-juniper woodlands [123,144]. Associated species include true pinyon, singleleaf pinyon, ponderosa pine, Utah juniper, Rocky Mountain juniper (J. scopulorum), and Jeffrey pine (P. jeffreyi). Associated shrub species include Wyoming big sagebrush, basin big sagebrush, antelope bitterbrush, Gambel oak (Quercus gambelii), black sagebrush (A. nova), gray low sagebrush, and desert peach (Prunus andersonii). Associated species also include genera Chrysothamnus, Symphoricarpos, Cercocarpus, Ceanothus, Arctostaphylos, Physocarpus, Ribes, Rhus, and Cowania. Associated grasses are numerous, including Columbia needlegrass (Achnatherum nelsonii ssp. dorei), bottlebrush squirreltail, Sandberg bluegrass, bluebunch wheatgrass and cheatgrass [118,121,122,123,144,154].

Publications listing mountain big sagebrush as a dominant, codominant, or indicator species include the following:

Plant communities and habitat types in the Lava Beds National Monument, California [36]
Sagebrush-steppe habitat types in northern Colorado: a first approximation [41]
Grassland, shrubland, and forestland habitat types of the White River-Arapaho National Forest [54]
Sagebrush-grass habitat types of southern Idaho [57]
Plant associations of Region Two: Potential plant communities of Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, and Kansas [62]
Plant communities of the Similkameen Valley, British Columbia [78]
A preliminary classification of high-elevation sagebrush-grass vegetation in northern and central Nevada [85]
Aspen community types on the Caribou and Targhee National Forests in southeastern Idaho [89]
A preliminary classification and characterization of big sagebrush, Artemisia tridentata Nutt., communities in central Montana [116]
Shrub-steppe habitat types of Middle Park, Colorado [119]
Big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata vaseyana) and longleaf snowberry (Symphoricarpos oreophilus) plant associations in northeastern Nevada [124]
Grassland and shrubland habitat types of the Shoshone National Forest [125]
Taxonomic and ecological relationships of the big sagebrush complex in Idaho [147]
Sagebrush steppe [153]

Related categories for SPECIES: Artemisia tridentata spp. vaseyana | Mountain Big Sagebrush