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Wildlife, Animals, and Plants
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Introductory
SPECIES: Leptodactylon pungens | Prickly Phlox
ABBREVIATION :
LEPPUN
SYNONYMS :
Gilia pungens
SCS PLANT CODE :
LEPU
COMMON NAMES :
prickly phlox
gilia
granite prickly phlox
granite-gilia
rock gilia
granite prickly gilia
TAXONOMY :
The fully documented species name is Leptodactylon pungens (Torr.) Nutt.
Cronquist and others [5] recognize the following varieties:
Leptodactylon pungens var. pungens
Leptodactylon pungens var. hallii (Parish) Jepson
LIFE FORM :
Shrub
FEDERAL LEGAL STATUS :
No special status
OTHER STATUS :
NO-ENTRY
COMPILED BY AND DATE :
J. L. Holifield, March 1988
LAST REVISED BY AND DATE :
NO-ENTRY
AUTHORSHIP AND CITATION :
Holifield, Jennifer L. 1988. Leptodactylon pungens. In: Remainder of Citation
DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES: Leptodactylon pungens | Prickly Phlox
GENERAL DISTRIBUTION :
Prickly phlox occurs east of the Cascade Mountains in Washington and
adjacent southern British Columbia eastward to Montana, and extends
south to northern Baja California, Arizona, New Mexico, and central
Nebraska [5].
ECOSYSTEMS :
FRES20 Douglas-fir
FRES21 Ponderosa pine
FRES23 Fir - spruce
FRES29 Sagebrush
FRES30 Desert shrub
FRES34 Chaparral - mountain shrub
FRES35 Pinyon - juniper
STATES :
AZ CA CO ID MT NE NM NV OR UT
WA WY BC
ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS :
BICA BRCA CARE COLM CRLA DEVA
DINO FOBU GLCA GRTE GRBA GRSA
JODA LABE MEVE NABR YELL ZION
BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS :
2 Cascade Mountains
4 Sierra Mountains
5 Columbia Plateau
6 Upper Basin and Range
7 Lower Basin and Range
8 Northern Rocky Mountains
11 Southern Rocky Mountains
12 Colorado Plateau
KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS :
K011 Western ponderosa forest
K012 Douglas-fir forest
K017 Black Hills pine forest
K018 Pine - Douglas-fir forest
K019 Arizona pine forest
K021 Southwestern spruce - fir forest
K023 Juniper - pinyon woodland
K037 Mountain mahogany - oak scrub
K038 Great Basin sagebrush
K040 Saltbush - greasewood
K051 Wheatgrass - bluegrass
K055 Sagebrush steppe
K056 Wheatgrass - needlegrass shrubsteppe
K057 Galleta - three-awn shrubsteppe
K063 Foothills prairie
K065 Grama - buffalograss
K066 Wheatgrass - needlegrass
SAF COVER TYPES :
208 Whitebark pine
209 Bristlecone pine
219 Limber pine
237 Interior ponderosa pine
239 Pinyon - juniper
247 Jeffrey pine
SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES :
NO-ENTRY
HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES :
Prickly phlox occurs in sagebrush-grass, pinyon-juniper, Great Basin
bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva), limber pine (P. flexilis), white fir
(Abies concolor), Jeffrey pine (Pinus jeffreyi), and whitebark pine (P.
albicaulis) habitat types within its range. Prickly phlox is often a
constituent of seral plant communities [11]. It has been described as
an indicator of sites in poor condition [29].
VALUE AND USE
SPECIES: Leptodactylon pungens | Prickly Phlox
WOOD PRODUCTS VALUE :
NO-ENTRY
IMPORTANCE TO LIVESTOCK AND WILDLIFE :
Prickly phlox was used by bighorn sheep in December and by mule deer in
February and April on bighorn sheep range in east-central Idaho [17].
In southeastern Idaho, prickly phlox is moderately grazed by sheep in
early and late summer [14].
PALATABILITY :
The degree of use shown by livestock and wildlife species for prickly
phlox in several western states is rated as follows [6]:
CO UT WY
Cattle Poor Poor Poor
Sheep Poor Poor Fair
Horses Poor Poor Poor
Pronghorn ---- Fair ----
Elk ---- Poor ----
Mule deer ---- Poor ----
Small mammals ---- Fair ----
Small nongame birds ---- Fair ----
Upland game birds ---- Fair ----
Waterfowl ---- Poor ----
NUTRITIONAL VALUE :
Prickly phlox is rated poor in energy and protein value [6].
COVER VALUE :
The degree to which prickly phlox provides environmental protection
during one or more seasons for wildlife species in Utah is as follows
[6]:
Pronghorn Poor
Elk Poor
Mule deer Poor
Small mammals Fair
Small nongame birds Poor
Upland game birds Poor
Waterfowl Poor
VALUE FOR REHABILITATION OF DISTURBED SITES :
Prickly phlox is described as having low to moderate establishment
requirements and low potential for biomass production [6]. It is rated
as having low potential for erosion control and for short- and long-term
revegetation projects [6].
OTHER USES AND VALUES :
NO-ENTRY
MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS :
Prickly phlox frequency has been reported to decrease with livestock
exclusion [1,13]. On a southeastern Idaho sagebrush-grass range,
Harniss and Wright [14] found a decrease in percent production of
prickly phlox the first 2 years from early summer and late summer
grazing by sheep. West and others [32] reported prickly phlox lives
much longer on ungrazed plots.
In areas in Utah where 2,4 D application had removed the shrub canopy,
prickly phlox increased in density by seedling establishment within 4
years. However, it increased only at sites where cheatgrass (Bromus
tectorum) did not increase and the remaining perennial grasses were not
abundant [35].
BOTANICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
SPECIES: Leptodactylon pungens | Prickly Phlox
GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS :
Prickly phlox is a native, perennial shrub or subshrub with a taproot
[5,24]. It is more or less erect, open or densely branched, and ranges
from 4 to 24 inches (1-6 dm) in height [5,15]. The plant is somewhat
aromatic [5]. Herbage is puberulent to glandular-puberulent or
glandular-villous to glabrous [31]. The numerous and crowded leaves are
alternate to subopposite (or the lower are opposite) and are cleft into
three to nine rigid, spinulose-tipped segments [5,31]. Dead leaves
commonly persist through one or more seasons [5].
The sessile flowers of prickly phlox are solitary and auxillary or are
at the ends of short leafy branches [5]. Flowers are usually dull white
or cream colored and marked or washed with pale lavender outside but can
vary to yellowish or salmon colored [5,31]. Flowers are nocturnal [5].
The seed capsule is usually three-loculed and persists for some time
after seed dehiscence [5,31].
RAUNKIAER LIFE FORM :
Undisturbed State: Chamaephyte
Burned or Clipped State: Chamaephyte
REGENERATION PROCESSES :
Little information could be located in the available literature
concerning the regenerative characteristics of prickly phlox. Its fruit
is usually a three-loculed capsule which splits open at maturity to
release the small seeds [5,19].
SITE CHARACTERISTICS :
Prickly phlox grows on relatively open sites from the deserts, plains,
valleys, and foothills to timberline or above in the drier mountains
[5]. It occurs on alluvial terraces and fans, drainage bottoms, flats
and gently rolling slopes to ridgetops in hilly and mountainous terrain
[3,18,28,29,36]. Soil surface horizons are often coarse to cobbly and
stoney, sandy or sandy loam in texture [9,11,18,29]. Soils are
frequently granitic in origin, but prickly phlox also occurs on soils
derived from colluvial and residual gneissic and schistic rock,
sandstone, dolomite, limestone, and pumice [9,28,29,31].
Generalized elevational ranges for prickly phlox in several western
states are reported as follows [3,6,18,21,25,28,29,36]:
from 4,101 to 12,000 ft (1,250-3,658 m) in CA
4,000 to 9,500 ft (1,219-2,896 m) in CO
6,200 to 7,500 ft (1,890-2,286 m) in MT
4,593 to 12,000 ft (1,400-3,658 m) in NV
4,800 to 4,900 ft (1,463-1,493 m) in OR
4,500 to 8,600 ft (1,372-2,621 m) in UT
4,100 to 8,100 ft (1,250-2,469 m) in WY
Elevational range for ssp. halli in California is reported to be 4,000
to 9,000 feet (1,219-3,658 m) [21].
Prickly phlox is typically not an abundant part of the vegetation [5].
It commonly occurs with such species as needle-and-thread grass (Stipa
spp.), cheatgrass, bluebunch wheatgrass (Pseudoroegneria spicata),
thread-leaf sedge (Carex filifolia), sandwort (Arenaria kingi), sulfur
buckwheat (Eriogonum umbellatum), longleaf phlox (Phlox longifolia),
rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus spp.), snakeweed (Gutierrezia sarothrae),
prickly pear (Opuntia polyacantha), bottlebrush squirreltail (Elymus
elymoides), wax current (Ribes cereum), bitterbrush (Purshia
tridentata), oak (Quercus turbinella), big sagebrush (Artemisia
tridentata), and black sagebrush (A. nova) [2,3,18,24,26,28,32,35].
SUCCESSIONAL STATUS :
In southern Idaho, Eggler [8] described prickly phlox as a dominant
shrub on old, soil-covered volcanic flows.
SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT :
General flowering dates for prickly phlox in four western states are
[6]:
Beginning of Flowering Flowering End of Flowering
CO May June August
MT June July July
WY May June July
UT May ____ June
In southern Idaho, Eggler [8] reported growth of prickly phlox ceased
early in August.
FIRE ECOLOGY
SPECIES: Leptodactylon pungens | Prickly Phlox
FIRE ECOLOGY OR ADAPTATIONS :
Prickly phlox is described as being severely damaged by fire [34].
POSTFIRE REGENERATION STRATEGY :
NO-ENTRY
FIRE EFFECTS
SPECIES: Leptodactylon pungens | Prickly Phlox
IMMEDIATE FIRE EFFECT ON PLANT :
Prickly phlox is severely damaged by fire [34].
DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF FIRE EFFECT :
NO-ENTRY
PLANT RESPONSE TO FIRE :
In sagebrush-grass vegetation of the Great Basin area of Utah, West and
Hassan [32] reported the percent cover of prickly phlox initially
decreased after a July wildfire. For four macroplots sampled before and
after the wildfire, the mean (kg/ha) and one standard error of mean
(within parenthesis) for prickly phlox were as follows [32]:
1981 1982 1983
(before fire)
LEPPUN 8.08 (23.10) 0.78 (2.62) 3.32 (8.92)
In western Nevada, prickly phlox increased in density after burning
[35].
DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF PLANT RESPONSE :
NO-ENTRY
FIRE MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS :
NO-ENTRY
REFERENCES
SPECIES: Leptodactylon pungens | Prickly Phlox
REFERENCES :
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Index
Related categories for Species: Leptodactylon pungens
| Prickly Phlox
|
 |
