DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES: Elaeagnus commutata | Silverberry 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION : 
Silverberry occurs from Alaska and the Yukon Territory, east to the
Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories, and south through Canada
from British Columbia to Quebec to Minnesota, South Dakota, Colorado,
and Utah [50,53,59,60].


ECOSYSTEMS : 
   FRES10  White - red - jack pine
   FRES11  Spruce - fir
   FRES19  Aspen - birch
   FRES23  Fir - spruce
   FRES28  Western hardwoods
   FRES36  Mountain grasslands
   FRES38  Plains grasslands
   FRES39  Prairie


STATES : 
     AK  CO  ID  MN  MT  NE  ND  SD  UT  WY
     AB  BC  MB  NT  ON  PQ  SK  YT


ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS : 
NO-ENTRY


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


KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS : 
   K063  Foothills prairie
   K064  Grama - needlegrass - wheatgrass
   K066  Wheatgrass - needlegrass
   K067  Wheatgrass - bluestem - needlegrass
   K074  Bluestem prairie
   K093  Great Lakes spruce - fir forest
   K095  Great Lakes pine forest
   K107  Northern hardwoods - fir forest


SAF COVER TYPES : 
     1  Jack pine
     5  Balsam fir
    12  Black spruce
    13  Black spruce - tamarack
    16  Aspen
    18  Paper birch
    38  Tamarack
   107  White spruce
   201  White spruce
   202  White spruce - paper birch
   203  Balsam poplar
   204  Black spruce
   217  Aspen
   235  Cottonwood - willow
   251  White spruce - aspen
   252  Paper birch
   253  Black spruce - white spruce
   254  Black spruce -  paper birch


SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES : 
NO-ENTRY


HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES : 
Silverberry occurs in a variety of habitats including boreal forest,
spruce-fir (Picea-Abies), quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides),
cottonwood (Populus spp.), willow (Salix spp.), mixed-grass prairie,
tallgrass prairie, shrubland, grassland, and riparian [1,3,14,49,60].
It is an indicator of the quaking aspen parkland community type in the
Canadian prairie provinces [1,8].

Silverberry occurs in seral communities throughout the Intermountain
region.  It is a riverine floodplain shrub in narrowleaf cottonwood (P.
angustifolia) and black cottonwood (P. trichocarpa) communities of Idaho
[49].  It is an incidental riparian type along the Big Hole and Ruby
rivers of Montana [11], and may occur as a riparian dominance type in
Montana [20].  It is found in riparian communities dominated by willow
and poplar (Populus spp.) in Utah [60], and is a member of riparian
shrub communities in Idaho and Wyoming [53].

Silverberry is an important species in native mixed-grass prairie of
the northern United States and southern Canada.  In North Dakota,
silverberry is commonly found in shrub-grassland communities dominated
by western wheatgrass (Pascopyrum smithii), needlegrass (Stipa spp.),
and rough fescue (Festuca scabrella) [3,36,40].  Silverberry is also
found in tallgrass prairies of the Great Plains [33,62].  It is found in
the rough fescue-Idaho fescue (Festuca idahoensis)-bluebunch wheatgrass
(Pseudoroegneria spicata) habitat type of Montana [32].  Silverberry is
prevalent in rough fescue-porcupine grass (Stipa spartea) communities of
the aspen parkland in central Alberta [4,6], and native fescue
grasslands of Saskatchewan [43].  It is a member of the western
snowberry (Symphoricarpos occidentalis) community in central Alberta
[2].

Silverberry is found in boreal forests of northern Alberta, the Yukon
Territory, and Alaska [14,18,56].  In the Yukon Territory, silverberry
is a member of a mature white spruce (Picea glauca) forest [18].  In
northeastern Alberta, silverberry is an important understory species in
white spruce-aspen forests and jack pine (Pinus banksiana) woodlands in
upland areas and in black spruce (Picea mariana)-tamarack (Larix
laricina) bogs in poorly drained areas [14].

Species not previously mentioned but commonly associated with
silverberry in mixed-grass prairies and mountain grasslands include
plains cottonwood (Populus deltoides), hackberry (Celtis occidentalis),
shrubby cinquefoil (Potentilla fruticosa), fringed sagebrush (Artemisia
frigida), creeping juniper (Juniperus horizontalis), chokecherry (Prunus
virginiana), hawthorn (Crataegus spp.), Wood's rose (Rosa woodsii),
Saskatoon serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia), smooth brome (Bromus
inermis), quackgrass (Elytrigia repens), little bluestem (Schizachyrium
scoparium), blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis), needle-and-thread grass
(Stipa comata), green needlegrass (S. viridula), witchgrass panic
(Panicum capillare), Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis), Sandberg
bluegrass (P. secunda), plains muhly (Muhlenbergia cuspidata), prairie
junegrass (Koeleria macrantha), silver-leaf scurf pea (Psoralea
argophylla), northern bedstraw (Galium boreale), Canada goldenrod
(Solidago canadensis), and silky lupine (Lupinus sericeus)
[3,32,36,39,40].

Related categories for Species: Elaeagnus commutata | Silverberry