(6) Salix qlauca / Deschampsia cespitosa c.t. 



Broad, gently concave, cool upper slopes often support 

 vegetation dominated by dense thickets of Salix glauca with 

 lesser amounts of S± planifolia . Common ground layer species 

 included the graminoids, Deschampsia cespitosa , Carex paysonis, 

 C. scirpoidea and Luzula spicata and the forbs, Lupinus 

 argenteus , Geum rossii , Artemisia scopulorum and Solidago 

 multiradiata . Soils are saturated early in the growing season 

 but become dry later in the year. These communities combined 

 with the next type were described for this same area by Johnson 

 and Billings (1962). Potkin and Munn (1987) described a Salix 

 qlauca/ Deschampsia cespitosa c.t. for the Wind River Range of 

 Wyoming. Other communities dominated by S^ glauca have been 

 described for the Canadian Rockies (Achuff and Corns 1982), 

 southwest Montana (Cooper and Lesica 1992) and Colorado 

 (Komarkova and Webber 1978) , but the associated species in these 

 types are appreciably different. 



(7) Salix planifolia / Carex paysonis c.t. 



Stream terraces and seep areas often display vegetation 

 dominated by Salix planifolia . The ground layer was dominated by 

 Carex paysonis , Deschampsia cespitosa , Caltha leptosepala, Sedum 

 rhodanthum and Senecio cymbalarioides . Soils are usually 

 saturated throughout the growing season. Johnson and Billings 

 (1962) described similar communities from the same area. This 

 community is found in many areas of the Beartooth Range (Lesica 

 pers. obs.). Subalpine and montane communities dominated by S^ 

 planifolia have been described for Montana by Hansen et al. 

 (1991), but the ground layer is different. Potkin and Munn 

 (1987) described three communities dominated by S_^ planifolia in 

 the Wind River Range of Wyoming. Lewis (1970) mentioned colonies 

 of S^ planifolia in the alpine zone of the Uinta Range of Utah. 



(8) Deschampsia cespitosa / Caltha leptosepala c.t. 



Subirrigated stream terraces near timberline may support wet 

 meadows dominated by Deschampsia cespitosa and Carex macloviana. 

 Common forbs include Caltha leptosepala . Potentilla diversifolia 

 and Polygonum bistortoides . Soils are moist throughout most of 

 the growing season. Both Mueggler and Stewart (1980) and Hansen 

 et al. (1991) described meadow vegetation dominated by EK. 

 cespitosa for the subalpine and montane zones, but their types 

 were drier and warmer than the alpine community described for 

 southwest Montana by Cooper and Lesica (1992) and for the Wind 

 River Range of Wyoming by Potkin and Munn (1987) . Alpine meadows 

 dominated by D^ cespitosa but with fewer wet-site forbs occur in 

 Colorado and Utah (Willard 1979, May and Webber 1982, Lewis 

 1970) . 



