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I 



18 

 1. Federal 



b. U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service: none 

 a. Bureau of Land Management: none 



c. U. S. Forest Service: none 



C. Geographic distribution 



1. Species range: "central Idaho and adjacent Montana to 

 Wyoming; Nevada (Hitchcock and Cronquist 1973)," also in 

 northwestern Colorado (Weber 1987). 



2. Montana distribution: southern Beaverhead County; 

 Sphaeromeria argentea is now known from 5 sites in Montana, 

 in the drainages of Red Rock Creek (near Dell and Matador 

 Ranch), upper Big Sheep Creek, Horse Prairie Creek, and 

 Grasshopper Creek (near Bannack) . 



3. Occurrences in the study area: Sphaeromeria argentea was 

 found on the same limestone hillside above the cemetery 

 where Lomatium attenuatum was found and much of the 

 population areas of these two species overlap. Most of the 

 population lies outside of the park boundaries as shown on 

 the uses Bannack 7.5' quadrangle but within the boundaries 

 of the current Recreation and Public Purposes Patent 

 application. An Element Occurrence Record and map showing 

 the precise location of the population are included in 

 Appendix D. 



D. Habitat 



1. Associated vegetation: At Bannack, chicken sage grows in a 

 mountain mahogany/bluebunch wheatgrass ( Cercocarpus 

 ledifolius/Elymus spicatus ) community with limber pine 

 (Pinus flexilis) . Associated forbs include all those listed 

 for tapertip biscuitroot ( Lomatium attenuatum) except the 

 undescribed bladderpod ( Lesquerella sp. novum I). A 

 population of Sphaeromeria argentea on BLM land five miles 

 to the south in the "Rocky Hills" (Vanderhorst 1995c) grows 

 in similar habitat and is also near a population of 

 Lesquerella sp. novum. However, at both sites these two 

 species seem to have mutually exclusive population areas. 

 In the basin of upper Big Sheep Creek in extreme southern 

 Beaverhead County, chicken sage grows in a quite different 

 habitat, an alkaline bottomland dominated by Great Basin low 

 sagebrush ( Artemisia arbuscula) and greasewood ( Sarcobatus 

 vermiculatus ) (Vanderhorst and Lesica 1994). 



