DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES: Oplopanax horridus | Devil's Club 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION : 
Devil's club is distributed from south-central Alaska south along the
Pacific Coast and the western slope of the Cascade Range to southern
Oregon and east to southwestern Yukon Territory, Idaho, and western
Montana.  Disjunct populations occur on several islands of northern Lake
Superior, including Isle Royale and Passage Island, Michigan, and
Porphyry and Slate islands, Ontario [30,45,46].  Some authorities [23]
extend its distribution to eastern Asia.  Voss [46], however, recognized
the Asian plants as a distinct species, Oplopanax elatus (Nakai) Nakai.


ECOSYSTEMS : 
   FRES23  Fir - spruce
   FRES24  Hemlock - Sitka spruce
   FRES28  Western hardwoods


STATES : 
     AK  ID  MI  MT  OR  WA  BC  ON  YT


ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS : 
     CRLA  GLBA  GLAC  ISRO  LACL  MORA
     NOCA  OLYM


BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS : 
    1  Northern Pacific Border
    2  Cascade Mountains
    5  Columbia Plateau
    8  Northern Rocky Mountains


KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS : 
   K001  Spruce - cedar - hemlock forest
   K002  Cedar - hemlock - Douglas-fir forest
   K004  Fir - hemlock forest
   K025  Alder - ash forest


SAF COVER TYPES : 
   201  White spruce
   202  White spruce - paper birch
   203  Balsam poplar
   205  Mountain hemlock
   206  Engelmann spruce - subalpine fir
   221  Red alder
   223  Sitka spruce
   224  Western hemlock
   225  Western hemlock - Sitka spruce
   226  Coastal true fir - hemlock
   227  Western redcedar - western hemlock
   228  Western redcedar
   252  Paper birch


SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES : 
NO-ENTRY


HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES : 
Devil's club is a dominant component of understories of various Pacific
Northwest and western boreal forests where moist to wet soil conditions
prevail.  Devil's club is an indicator of numerous habitat types; some
commonly occurring ones are western redcedar (Thuja plicata)/devil's
club, western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla)/devil's club, Sitka spruce
(Picea sitchensis)-western hemlock/devil's club, subalpine fir (Abies
lasiocarpa)/devil's club, and Pacific silver fir (A. amabilis)/devil's
club [2,3,8,9].  Understories of various forest/devil's club types are
sometimes nearly pure, dense stands of devil's club.  Other understories
dominated by devil's club, however, are species rich, involving mixed
shrub, shrub-fern, or shrub-forb associations [21,27].

A comprehensive list of publications naming devil's club as a dominant
or indicator species would be prohibitively long.  A geographically
representative selection of such publications is listed below:

Old-growth forests of the Canadian Rocky Mountain national parks [1]
Forest types of the North Cascades National Park Service Complex [2]
Classification and management of riparian and wetland sites in
   northwestern Montana [8]
Plant associations and management guide for the Pacific silver fir zone
   and Gifford Pinchot National Forest [9]
Forest habitat types of northern Idaho: a second approximation [11]
Preliminary forest plant association management guide: Ketchikan Area,
   Tongass National Forest [14]
Classification, description, and dynamics of plant communities after
   fire in the taiga of interior Alaksa [19]

Devil's club tree associates not previously mentioned include noble fir
(Abies procera), grand fir (A. grandis), Alaska-cedar (Chamaecyparis
nootkatensis), Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), western white pine
(Pinus monticola), lodgepole pine (P. contorta varieties latifolia and
murrayana), shore pine (P. c. var. contorta), bigleaf maple (Acer
macrophyllum), quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides), and black cottonwood
(P. trichocarpa) [12,15,38,39].

Shrub associates are Alaska blueberry (Vaccinium alaskaense), ovalleaf
huckleberry (V. ovalifolium), evergreen huckleberry (V. ovatum), bog
blueberry (V. uliginosum), salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis), Rocky
Mountain maple (Acer circinatum), red-osier dogwood (Cornus sericea),
prickly currant (Ribes lacustre), and Oregon-grape (Mahonia nervosa)
[14,15,19,38]. 

Herbaceous associates of devil's club include queencup beadlily
(Clintonia uniflora), trefoil foamflower (Tiarella trifoliata), starry
false-Solomon's-seal (Smilacina stellata), northern bedstraw (Galium
boreale), softleaved sedge (Carex disperma), woolly sedge (C.
laeviculmis), and coast sedge (C. obnupta) [8,38].  Other common
associates are wood horsetail (Equistum sylvaticum), ladyfern (Athyrium
filixfemina), oak-fern (Gymnocarpium dryopteris), mountain woodfern
(Dryopteris austriaca), and mosses (Mnium spp.) [8,15,27,38].

Related categories for Species: Oplopanax horridus | Devil's Club