DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES: Empetrum nigrum | Black Crowberry 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION : 
Black crowberry is distributed throughout Alaska, across the Yukon
Territory and Canada to Labrador, Newfoundland, and Greenland.  It
occurs south through New England and the Great Lakes states, as well as
along the Pacific Coast to northern California.  Black crowberry also
has a wide distribution throughout Europe [38,42,47].


ECOSYSTEMS : 
   FRES10  White - red - jack pine
   FRES11  Spruce - fir
   FRES19  Aspen - birch
   FRES20  Douglas-fir
   FRES23  Fir - spruce
   FRES24  Hemlock - Sitka spruce
   FRES26  Lodgepole pine
   FRES44  Alpine


STATES : 
     AK  CA  ME  MA  MI  MN  NH  NY  OR  VT
     WA  WI  AB  BC  LB  MB  NB  NF  NT  NS
     ON  PQ  SK  YT


ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS : 
     ACAD  DENA  GLBA  ISRO  LACL  MORA
     NOCA  OLYM  PIRO  WRST  YUCH


BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS : 
   1  Northern Pacific Border
   2  Cascade Mountains


KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS : 
   K001  Spruce - cedar - hemlock forest
   K002  Cedar - hemlock - Douglas-fir forest
   K003  Silver fir - Douglas-fir forest
   K004  Fir - hemlock forest
   K008  Lodgepole pine - subalpine forest
   K012  Douglas-fir forest
   K015  Western spruce - fir forest
   K052  Alpine meadows and barren
   K093  Great Lakes spruce - fir forest
   K094  Conifer bog
   K095  Great Lakes pine forest
   K096  Northeastern spruce - fir forest
   K108  Northern hardwoods - spruce 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
   204  Black spruce
   205  Mountain hemlock
   206  Engelmann spruce - subalpine fir
   218  Lodgepole pine
   223  Sitka spruce
   224  Western hemlock
   225  Western hemlock - Sitka spruce
   226  Coastal true fir - hemlock
   227  Western redcedar - western hemlock
   228  Western redcedar
   229  Pacific Douglas-fir
   230  Douglas-fir - western hemlock
   253  Black spruce - white spruce
   254  Black spruce - paper birch


SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES : 
NO-ENTRY


HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES : 
Black crowberry is a dominant or codominant in a variety of different
habitats.  It may occur as an understory dominant in open conifer
woodlands with black spruce (Picea mariana), white spruce (P. glauca),
or shore pine (Pinus contorta var. contorta).  Black crowberry can
dominate shrub-types with dwarf birch (Betula nana), willow (Salix
spp.), and ericaceous shrubs in bogs or muskegs and on open, moist
tundra [1,8,33,37,46].

Other commonly associated species include:  paper birch (Betula
papyrifera), quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides), Alaska cedar
(Chamaecyparis nootkatensis), bog birch (Betula glandulosa), Labrador
tea (Ledum glandulosum and L. groenlandicum), various Vaccinium and
Carex species, feathermosses (Hylocomium spp. and Pleurozium spp.),
lichens (Cladonia spp. and Cladina spp.), and sphagnum mosses.

Published classification schemes listing black crowberry as a major
component of plant associations (pas), community types (cts), or
vegetation types (vts) are as follows:

AREA                    CLASSIFICATION               AUTHORITY

 AK                      gen. veg. pas         Viereck & Dyrness 1980
Kenai Peninsula, AK            vts                 Reynolds 1990
Canadian Rocky Mtns.      old growth cts            Achuff 1989
  NF                       peatland pas             Pollett 1972
sw YT                          cts                 Douglas 1974

Related categories for Species: Empetrum nigrum | Black Crowberry