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.

Related categories for Species: Leptodactylon pungens | Prickly Phlox