occurrence of this species in Hyalite Canyon was known from 4 

 specimens (plus duplicates) at MONT collected between 1888 and 

 1957. The labels on these specimens give locations of "Upper 

 Middle Creek"," West Fork Middle Creek"," Chisholm's Camp" and 

 "Hyalite Canyon, open meadow above lake." On the 1955 USGS 

 Fridley Peak Quadrangle (15 minute series) "Chisholm Cabin" is 

 shown just above the Reservoir, close to the present Forest 

 Service "Chisholm" campground and within 1/2 mile of the 

 population of S. oregana which I found. Middle Creek is an 

 old name for Hyalite Creek and its "West Fork" or "Upper" 

 section would also refer to the section of Hyalite Creek above 

 the Reservoir. The statement "probably below Hyalite 

 Reservoir" on the EOR printout for the historical record seems 

 to be an error. Intensive searching of the entire canyon, 

 especially below the Reservoir, revealed no other sites for 

 this element. The evidence suggests that all of the 

 collections at MONT came from the same population which I 

 found, and that the distribution of S. oregana in Hyalite 

 Canyon is limited to this population. An Element Occurrence 

 Record printout and map are included in Appendix C. 



C. HABITAT 



The population of S. oregana occurs in natural montane meadows 

 and the adjacent meadow/forest and meadow/willow thicket 

 ecotones. The meadows are dominated by forbs and are an 

 uncommon vegetation type within Hyalite Canyon; most openings 

 in the valley are man-made clearcuts. The adjacent forest is 

 dominated by Picea engelmanii and Pinus contorta . Common 

 native forbs in the meadows include Perideridia gairdneri. 

 Campanula rotundi folia. Delphinium occidentale, Fragaria 

 virginiana, Senecio crassulus, and Lupinus argenteus . Common 

 native grasses include Bromus carinatus and Melica 

 spectabilis. There is also a high density of exotic forbs and 

 grasses, especially at the upstream subpopulation; these 

 include Cirsium arvense, Phleum alpinum, Bromus inermis, Poa 

 pratensis and Trifolium repens . Perhaps the most distinctive 

 feature of the habitat is the soil, which is an extremely 

 heavy red clay that dries to almost the hardness of brick, but 

 is probably moist for most of the season. S. oregana was not 

 found in natural meadows upstream which lacked this soil. 

 Neither was the species found under closed forest canopies or 

 in adjacent wet meadows dominated by sedges. In the Mission 

 Valley, S. oregana grows around the glacial potholes in a zone 

 just uphill from the willow zone (Lesica, pers. commun.). 

 Slides 10 and 11 in Appendix D show the habitat of the 

 upstream and downstream Hyalite Canyon subpopulations 

 respectively. 



D. POPULATION BIOLOGY 



The upstream subpopulation is extremely dense, with over 

 10,000 estimated aerial stems covering about 15 acres. S. 

 oregana is perhaps the dominant species in this meadow, 



26 



