Altogether, there are 728,000,000 acres of range lands in the West, inhabited 

 naturally by over 1,200 genera and 10,000 species of flowering plants. The 

 economic and social significance of this range vegetation challenges compre- 

 hension. While this handbook is chiefly representative of mountain ranges 

 typical of the western national forests, many of the genera and species dis- 

 cussed occur also on the enormous areas of other and lower ranges. 



Nearly every phase of range management is intimately associated with a 

 knowledge of the range plants, their requirements, life history, and forage 

 value. Proper grazing capacity of range lands, periods and degrees of use, 

 and class of livestock to which a particular range is best suited are determined 

 largely by the character and composition of the range vegetation and the life 

 habits and values of the plants themselves. Indications of overgrazing cannot 

 be properly interpreted by and frequently are not discernible to persons un- 

 familiar with the plant cover. Recognition of the important forage plants, 

 combined with knowledge of the extent to which each can be properly grazed, 

 are essential to proper range use. Range fencing and salting are undertaken 

 chiefly because of local forage conditions. Poisonous plants, unless recognized 

 and guarded against, menace the welfare of herds and flocks. Soil protection, 

 soil erosion, and supply of water for domestic use, as well as for irrigation 

 and hydroelectric power, are all intimately correlated with mountain range 

 vegetative cover. Timber values are involved ,iu numerous ways, as the compo- 

 sition, quantity, and quality of range vegetation frequently are closely asso- 

 ciated with injuries to timber reproduction by domestic livestock, rodents, and 

 other agencies, as well as with the harboring of .insect pests and pathogenic 

 organisms. Furthermore, the recreational importance of many localities is 

 intimately interwoven with the beauty of the local flora or with its food value 

 for local wildlife. 



No book or group of publications provide this precise information required 

 by the range administrator. Large sections of the western range country 

 (e. g., Idaho and Arizona) are not treated, at present, in botanical manuals. 

 In his identifications the field man must depend on fragmentary works, few 

 of which are illustrated, usually either couched in unfamiliar technical 

 phraseology or so generalized and inadequate as to be almost worthless for 

 his purpose. For economic, ecological, and miscellaneous information he must 

 search even farther and generally with less success. 



For his convenience the range plant handbook employs a novel method 

 whereby the technical, diagnostic parts of a plant are portrayed in a manner 

 readily comprehensible by a person untrained in botany. To the right of 

 each illustration are the key diagnostic characters. This arrangement enables 

 the reader to grasp clearly the essential morphological characters of species. 



This handbook presents 339 generic and specific write-ups incorporated with 

 which, however, are notes on over 500 additional species. The main treat- 

 ments include 98 grasses, 8 grasslike plants (chiefly sedges and rushes), 137 

 range weeds (nongrasslike herbs), and 96 browse plants. Because of the 

 loose-leaf stmcture of this handbook, the text and illustrations are not paged. 

 Each plant discussion has its own symbol (Gl, G2, etc., for grasses; GL1, 

 GL2, etc., for grasslike plants; Wl, W2, etc., for range weeds; and Bl, B2, 

 etc., for browse). Gaps which appear in the symbol sequences are by way 

 of provision for the possible future inclusion of some 173 other plants of 

 material range importance. 



Sources 



The information upon which the articles in this handbook are based was 

 gleaned from both published and unpublished data of the Forest Service, as 

 well as from many other sources. One very important source is the Forest 

 Service range plant herbarium containing 80,000 annotated specimens, un- 

 questionably the richest single storehouse of information on western montane 

 vegetation. This herbarium is the result of a fairly systematic collection 

 of annotated range plant specimens, by about 1,300 Forest Service officers, in- 

 augurated by James T. Jardine as the first chief of range research in the 

 Forest Service. Much of the annotated material with these specimens is the 

 result of intensive field investigations by special grazing men both in ad- 

 ministration and research. The specimens themselves have been identified 



