AREAS SURVEYED BUT SPECIES NOT LOCATED: There are many areas of 

 Madison Group outcrop in Montana that have been surveyed for 

 sensitive species and where sword townsendia has not been found, 

 including Doherty Mountain, the Bannack area, the Big Belt 

 Mountains, and others. These areas are not completely ruled out 

 as sword townsendia habitat because it is possible that survey in 

 these areas was conducted too late in the season to dependably 

 locate sword townsendia. 



HABITAT 



ASSOCIATED VEGETATION: Sword townsendia occupies highly 

 localized foothills habitat, typically occurring within a narrow 

 zone of mountain mahogany ( Cercocarpus ledif olius ) stands, 

 particularly in openings representing cushion plant grasslands or 

 early successional stages of mountain mahogany. To a lesser 

 extent, it occupies open grassy sparsely-vegetated 

 limestone/dolomite outcrop at roughly the same elevation as 

 mountain mahogany. 



Mountain mahogany is a local indicator species for sword 

 townsendia, but has a much broader ecological amplitude than 

 sword townsendia. In the Limestone Hills, highest numbers of the 

 latter were found in and between stunted mountain mahogany stands 

 on gravel pavement that are taken to represent early successional 

 stages or interstitial cushion plant grassland within mountain 

 mahogany scrub. Associated species most consistently associated 

 with sword townsendia include: 



Agropyron spicatum 

 Carex rossii 

 Cercocarpus ledifolius 

 Chrysopsis villosa 

 Draba oligosperma 

 Erigeron compositus 

 Erigeron ochroleucus . 

 Eriogonum flavum 

 Hymenoxys acaulis 

 Lesquerella alpina 

 Phlox hoodii 



Other ridgetop species found at more than one sword townsendia 

 subpopulation in the Limestone Hills include: 



Antennaria microphylla 

 Cymopterus bipinnatus 

 Douglasia montana 

 Haplopappus acaulis 

 Juniperus scopulorum 

 Lomatium cous 

 Oryzopsis hymenoides 

 Petrophyton caespitosum 



