presented in Table 3. Sediments from Ravalli County belong to 

 the Wallace Formation in the Precambrian Belt Series, while those 

 from Beaverhead and Silver Bow counties are Paleozoic Madison 

 limestone (Alt and Hyndman 1986) . 



5. REGIONAL CLIMATE: The closest weather recording 

 station to the Ravalli County sites is at 

 Hamilton, ca. 13 miles southwest and 1,000 ft 

 lower. Mean temperatures for July and January are 

 67° and 25° F respectively, and mean annual 

 precipitation is 13.1 in. The closest recording 

 station to sites in Beaverhead County and most 

 sites in Silver Bow County is Divide, at 5,406 ft 

 along the Big Hole River. Mean temperatures for. 

 July and January are 63° and 19° F respectively, 

 and mean annual precipitation is 12.4 in. Butte, 

 at 5,540 ft, is ca . 13 miles north of three sites 

 in Silver Bow County. Mean temperatures for July 

 and January are 63° and 16° F respectively, and 

 mean annual precipitation is 11.7 in (NOAA 1982). 

 Many of the sites are appreciably higher than the 

 recording stations, and thus likely experiences 

 colder temperatures and greater precipitation. 



6. DEPENDENCE ON ABIOTIC DYNAMICS: Periodic erosion 

 and slumping of steep slope habitat may be 

 partially responsible for maintaining the 

 vegetation in a sparse condition, reducing 

 competition for light, water and nutrients. These 

 conditions may be important for the continued 

 presence of A^ fecunda at these sites. Many sites 

 would be considered to be early successional or 

 edaphic disclimaxes. Fire was relatively frequent 

 in many of these areas, but the sparse vegetation 

 present at the sites probably did not carry fire 

 well. 



Lesica and Shelly (1993) found a strong positive 

 correlation between winter precipitation and 

 recruitment and survivorship. Thus, all else 

 being equal, drier conditions are expected to 

 result in population declines. 



G. POPULATION DEMOGRAPHY AND BIOLOGY 



1. PHENOLOGY: Seeds germinate readily without 



stratification (Lesica and Shelly 1994); thus, 

 most seeds probably germinate in the fall. 

 Observations of naturally occurring and garden 

 plants suggest that vegetative growth occurs in 

 early spring and perhaps again in fall if 

 precipitation is adequate. At the Ravalli County 



