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Wildlife, Animals, and Plants |
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DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
GENERAL DISTRIBUTION:Blackbrush occurs primarily in the transition zone between the Mojave and Great Basin deserts and on the western border of the Sonoran Desert, forming a band from southeastern California to southwestern Colorado. It also occurs along the borders between Nevada, Utah, and Arizona [2,6,17], predominantly along the Colorado and San Juan river drainages in southeastern Utah and in adjacent drainages in the Mojave and Great Basin transition [6,8,17]. Blackbrush has also been reported as an invasive brush species in western, west-central, and southwestern Texas grasslands [131].
ECOSYSTEMS [35]:FRES21 Ponderosa pine FRES29 Sagebrush FRES30 Desert shrub FRES33 Southwestern shrubsteppe FRES34 Chaparral-mountain shrub FRES35 Pinyon-juniper FRES40 Desert grasslands
STATES:
BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS [11]:3 Southern Pacific Border 6 Upper Basin and Range 7 Lower Basin and Range 12 Colorado Plateau
KUCHLER [48] PLANT ASSOCIATIONS:K018 Pine-Douglas-fir forest K019 Arizona pine forest K022 Great Basin pine forest K023 Juniper-pinyon woodland K031 Oak-juniper woodland K032 Transition between K031 and K037 K037 Mountain-mahogany-oak scrub K038 Great Basin sagebrush K039 Blackbrush K040 Saltbush-greasewood K041 Creosotebush K042 Creosotebush-bursage K053 Grama-galleta steppe K054 Grama-tobosa prairie K057 Galleta-threeawn shrubsteppe K058 Grama-tobosa shrubsteppe K059 Trans-Pecos shrub savanna
SAF COVER TYPES [31]:220 Rocky Mountain juniper 237 Interior ponderosa pine 239 Pinyon-juniper 240 Arizona cypress 242 Mesquite
SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES [93]:210 Bitterbrush 211 Creosotebush scrub 212 Blackbush 401 Basin big sagebrush 403 Wyoming big sagebrush 405 Black sagebrush 408 Other sagebrush types 412 Juniper-pinyon woodland 413 Gambel oak 414 Salt desert shrub 417 Littleleaf mountain-mahogany 501 Saltbush-greasewood 502 Grama-galleta 504 Juniper-pinyon pine woodland 505 Grama-tobosa shrub 506 Creosotebush-bursage 508 Creosotebush-tarbush 509 Transition between oak-juniper woodland and mahogany-oak association
HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES:Blackbrush occurs both in essentially pure stands and as a component of several other vegetation types [6,104]. Nearly pure stands of blackbrush typically occur between the Mojave Desert creosotebush-white bursage (Larrea tridentata-Ambrosia dumosa) communities and the Great Basin sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) communities [8,16,17,106,110,118]. Blackbrush does not belong strictly to either Mojave or Great Basin vegetation types but occupies a position intermediary to that of creosotebush and sagebrush types [10,17,26,61,118]. At its lower boundary, the blackbrush association has relatively high species richness, and at its upper boundary blackbrush rapidly disappears when sagebrush appears [58]. It dominates the ecosystems occurring in the lowest, driest portions of the Colorado Plateau portion of the Great Basin Desert [124] as well those in the transition zone [10,14,49,113,124]. Because blackbrush transcends the biome boundaries, its associates differ based on the adjacent biome [109]. Blackbrush communities are generally bounded by creosotebush and Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia) communities at the lower elevational limit and by juniper (Juniperus spp.) and big sagebrush (A. tridentata) communities at the upper elevational limit [17,18,74]. It is characteristic of the southern desert shrub vegetation of Nevada, occurring with creosotebush, bursage, and Joshua tree [7,9,56,66,108]. In the Mojave Desert scrub, subordinate shrubs include winterfat (Krascheninnikovia lanata), Mojave yucca (Y. schidigera), creosotebush, turpentine bush (Thamnosa montana), desert almond (Prunus fasciculatus), and purple sage (Salvia dorrii) [49,97]. In the Great Basin Desert scrub, common associates are sagebrush, shadscale (Atriplex confertifolia), winterfat, greasewood, and rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus spp.) [67,109]. In California, blackbrush occurs as a subdominant species in the Mojave mixed woody scrub, and as a common understory species in pinyon-juniper (Pinus-Juniperus spp.) woodlands [106]. It is characteristic of the northern desert scrub in Arizona [32,44], and is dominant in the canyon desert areas of northern Arizona, comprising 90% of the vegetation in areas where it occurs [87]. Blackbrush is important in the Colorado pinyon (P. edulis)/blackbrush habitat type in northern Arizona [51]. In Nevada, blackbrush forms a dominant association [106,125], is a primary shrub associate in the sagebrush association and the salt desert scrub association, and is a common associate in the creosotebush-white bursage, hopsage (Grayia spinosa), and Mojave mixed scrub associations [106]. It is a subdominant in pinyon-juniper woodlands [4,5,13,21,103,106] and a codominant in stands of Joshua tree [1,61,77,103] and shadscale [118]. It occurs as a dominant shrub in both pinyon-dominated and juniper-dominated woodlands, occurring in the following plant associations [126]: northern Mojave: singleleaf pinyon (P.
monophylla)/blackbrush/blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis); singleleaf
pinyon/blackbrush/wavyleaf Indian paintbrush (Castilleja
applegatei); singleleaf pinyon/blackbrush/ Sandberg bluegrass (Poa secunda);
Utah juniper (J. osteosperma)/blackbrush/blue grama,
Utah juniper/blackbrush/Indian ricegrass (Achnatherum hymenoides); Utah juniper/blackbrush/mutton grass (Poa fendleriana) In pinyon-juniper woodlands blackbrush is commonly associated with Joshua tree, Our Lord's candle (Y. whipplei), sagebrush, ephedra (Ephedra spp.), winterfat, and cactus (Opuntia spp.) [55,56,100,105,126]. Relative blackbrush density varies dramatically by plant community type; for example, 8,894 plants /ha were found in the blackbrush scrub community type, while 647 plants/ha and 0 plants/ha were found on Joshua tree woodland and Mojave mixed steppe sites, respectively [33]. In 1 canyon in California, blackbrush cover ranged from 2.2% to 20.6% of total plant cover [120]. In monospecific blackbrush shrublands, plant density and species diversity are much lower than in adjacent shrublands [36,54]. On blackbrush sites in Arizona, blackbrush contributed 82% to 95% of shrub cover [45]. Though few other shrubs occur in these stands, red brome (Bromus madritensis ssp. rubens) and cheatgrass (B. tectorum) may be the dominant understory species [16,17,18,23]. At sites in southwestern Utah, blackbrush contributed 75% of all plant cover, with red brome and cheatgrass accounting for 12% [23]. Big galleta (Pleuraphis rigida) also contributes substantially to understory vegetation in blackbrush communities [18]. The blackbrush overstory tends to preclude extensive understory development [19,125]; however, herbaceous plants tend to occur in greatest abundance on the periphery of blackbrush canopies, indicating the presence of a more favorable microenvironment near the shrubs and a lack of any toxic effect exerted by blackbrush [17,23]. Blackbrush also commonly occurs with the following shrubs and grasses: fourwing saltbush (Atriplex canescens), desert bitterbrush (Purshia glandulosa), shrub live oak (Quercus turbinella), Cooper's heathgoldenrod (Ericameria cooperi), Fremont's dalea (Psorothamnus fremontii), white burrobush (Hymenoclea salsola), Anderson wolfberry (Lycium andersonii), broom snakeweed (Gutierrezia sarothrae), desert globemallow (Sphaeralcea ambigua), spiny mendora (Menodora spinescens), bladdersage (Salazaria mexicana), blue yucca, banana yucca (Y. baccata), galleta (Pleuraphis jamesii), threeawn (Aristida spp.), arid needlegrass (Achnatherum arida), desert needlegrass (A. speciosum), needle-and-thread grass (Hesperostipa comata), black grama (Bouteloua eriopoda), blue grama (B. gracilis), western wheatgrass (Pascopyrum smithii), and California buckwheat (Eriogonum fasiculatum) [1,5,13,16,62,65,69,71,89,95,96,107,118,119,124].
Publications describing blackbrush-dominated plant communities are:
Related categories for SPECIES: Coleogyne ramosissima | Blackbrush |
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