• GENERAL DISTRIBUTION
• ECOSYSTEMS
• STATES
• BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS
• KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS
• SAF COVER TYPES
• SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES
• HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES

GENERAL DISTRIBUTION:

Mountain snowberry is a widespread cordilleran species. It occurs from the foothills to high elevations throughout the western mountains ranges from British Columbia to Alberta and south to California, New Mexico, and northern Mexico [11,25].

ECOSYSTEMS:

FRES20 Douglas-fir
FRES21 Ponderosa pine
FRES23 Fir-spruce
FRES26 Lodgepole pine
FRES28 Western hardwoods
FRES29 Sagebrush
FRES34 Chaparral-mountain shrub
FRES35 Pinyon-juniper
FRES36 Mountain grasslands
FRES40 Desert grasslands
FRES44 Alpine

STATES:

AZ  CA  CO  ID  MT  NV  NM  OR  TX  UT  WA  WY 
 
BC 
 
MEXICO

BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS:

1 Northern Pacific Border
2 Cascade Mountains
3 Southern Pacific Border
4 Sierra Mountains
5 Columbia Plateau
6 Upper Basin and Range
7 Lower Basin and Range
8 Northern Rocky Mountains
9 Middle Rocky Mountains
10 Wyoming Basin
11 Southern Rocky Mountains
13 Rocky Mountain Piedmont
16 Upper Missouri Basin and Broken Lands

KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS:

K011 Western ponderosa forest
K012 Douglas-fir forest
K015 Western spruce-fir forest
K016 Eastern ponderosa forest
K017 Black Hills pine forest
K018 Pine-Douglas-fir forest
K019 Arizona pine forest
K020 Spruce-fir-Douglas-fir forest
K021 Southwestern spruce-fir forest
K023 Juniper-pinyon woodland
K037 Mountain-mahogany-oak scrub
K038 Great Basin sagebrush
K052 Alpine meadows and barren
K055 Sagebrush steppe
K057 Galleta-threeawn shrubsteppe
K063 Foothills prairie
K098 Northern floodplain forest

SAF COVER TYPES:

206 Engelmann spruce-subalpine fir
210 Interior Douglas-fir
211 White fir
216 Blue spruce
217 Aspen
219 Limber pine
220 Rocky Mountain juniper
237 Interior ponderosa pine
238 Western juniper
239 Pinyon-juniper
241 Western live oak

SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES:

101 Bluebunch wheatgrass
107 Western juniper/big sagebrush/bluebunch wheatgrass
108 Alpine Idaho fescue
109 Ponderosa pine shrubland
209 Montane shrubland
402 Mountain big sagebrush
409 Tall forb
411 Aspen woodland
412 Juniper-pinyon woodland
413 Gambel oak
415 Curlleaf mountain-mahogany
805 Riparian

HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES:

Mountain snowberry is a dominant shrub species in numerous nonforested and forested communities in the western United States. Habitat types using mountain snowberry as an indicator species have been identified within the Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), white fir (Abies concolor), ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa), subalpine fir (A. lasiocarpa), Gambel oak (Quercus gambelii), and quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) series. Mountain snowberry also occurs within the pinyon-juniper (Pinus-Juniperus spp.) zone and is a dominant understory species within the quaking aspen type throughout the western mountains. It is a major component on open slopes in the mountain-brush zone, where it may form pure stands. The upper limits of mountain snowberry's elevational range extend into the subalpine zone [33].

Common associates of mountain snowberry in quaking aspen communities are western yarrow (Achillea millifoilium), Wood's rose (Rosa woodsii), black chokecherry (Prunus virginiana var. melanocarpa), fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium), Saskatoon serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia), blue elderberry (Sambucus coerulea), lupine (Lupinus spp.) and sticky geranium (Geranium viscosissimum) [2].

Common associates in Douglas-fir communities include Rocky mountain maple (Acer glabrum), heartleaf arnica (Arnica cordifolia), bristly black currant (Ribes lacustre), Saskatoon serviceberry, snowbrush ceanothus (Ceanothus velutinus), elk sedge (Carex geyeri), fireweed, and butterweed (Senecio spp.) [49].

In Gambel oak communities of Utah, mountain snowberry often occurs with smooth sumac (Rhus glabra), skunkbush sumac (Rhus trilobata), hackberry (Celtis occidentalis), and mountain big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata var. vaseyana) [36]. Mountain snowberry is common within the big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata)/grass region and may become a codominant with big sagebrush, occurring most conspicuously on the more mesic sites with mountain big sagebrush [24].

Publications listing mountain snowberry as an indicator or dominant species in plant communities are listed below.

Grassland, shrubland, and forested habitat types of the White River-Arapaho National Forest [23]
Sagebrush-grass habitat types of southern Idaho [24]
Forest vegetation of the White River National Forest in western Colorado: a habitat type classification [26]
Aspen community types on the Caribou and Targhee National Forests in southeastern Idaho [39]
Aspen community types of Utah [40]
Forest habitat types of Montana [45]
A preliminary description of plant communities found on the Sawtooth, White Cloud, Boulder, and Pioneer Mountains [48]
Forest habitat types of eastern Idaho-western Wyoming [51]
Forest habitat types of central Idaho [53]
Grassland and shrubland habitat types of the Shoshone National Forest [59]

Related categories for SPECIES: Symphoricarpos oreophilus | Mountain Snowberry