3. FIELD CHARACTERS: Arabis is a very difficult 

 genus, and a suite of characters is usually needed 

 to distinguish a particular species from others. 

 The very erect fruits and dense grayish covering 

 of branched hairs on the foliage and fruit 

 distinguish A_^ f ecunda from all other Arabis in 

 western Montana. The species occurs only in 

 calcareous soil. 



4. PHOTOGRAPHS AND LINE DRAWINGS: Photographs of 

 Arabis f ecunda are available from the Montana 

 Natural Heritage Program. A line drawing is found 

 on the cover of Lesica and Shelly (1991) . A line 

 drawing of a bolting plant can be found in Kelseya 

 Vol. 2, No. 1 (1988) . 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 



1. RANGE: Arabis fecunda occurs at elevations of 

 4,700-7,800 ft in the west foothills of the 

 Sapphire Range of Ravalli County and the foothills 

 and mountains of the East Pioneer Range and 

 Highland Mountains of Beaverhead and Silver Bow 

 counties (Lesica 1985, Schassberger 1988) . The 

 global distribution of the species is shown in 

 Figure 1. 



2. RECENTLY VERIFIED SITES: There are 18 known 

 locations for Arabis fecunda; all have been 

 verified in the past six years. Location, 

 elevation and directions to these sites are 

 provided in Table 1. More complete information 

 can be found in the full element occurrence 

 records given in Appendix A. 



3. LOCATIONS NOT YET INVESTIGATED: Arabis fecunda has 

 always been found in southwest Montana on soils 

 derived from calc-silicate rocks that have come in 

 contact with granitic intrusions. Similar 

 geologic situations occur on the east flank of the 

 Highland Mountains just west of the town of Silver 

 Star and on the northwest end of the Tobacco Root 

 Range ca. 6 miles south of Whitehall. 



CULTIVATED MATERIAL: Arabis fecunda is currently being 

 cultivated at the University of Montana under direction 

 of Thomas Mitchell-Olds. In addition, a few 

 individuals been planted in the outdoor garden around 

 the Botany Greenhouse. 



HABITAT 



