1993. Across the circular plots were superimposed permanent belt 

 transects measuring 1 m. x the circular plot diameter (20 m for 

 all sites except 40 m at Russian Creek) , oriented to cross the 

 largest number of flowering plants within the circular plot. 

 Paired endpoints were marked by rebar, with two metric tapes 

 stretched between them, and a gridded lm x 1 m frame laid 

 directly over the tapes. All plants rooted within the plot were 

 recorded. 



Plants in the belt were recorded in the following categories: 



S - Seedlings or small plants; having three or fewer basal 

 leaves (Note: S = Rs of Schassberger 1991; and is 

 encompassed by R of Phillips and Field 1989-92) . 



R - Rosettes, having more than three basal leaves but not 

 flowering (Note: R = Rm + Rl of Schassberger 1991; R is not 

 split from S by Phillips and Field (1989-92) 



F/B - Flowering plants, recorded by the number of flower 

 heads open in flower (F) and closed in bud (B) . Some 

 flowering plants had many tiny immature flowers recorded 

 separately as aborted (A) . 



D - Dead flowering stem of previous year 



Regarding the distinction between juvenile classes, there was 

 observed to be every permutation between leaf length and leaf 

 number above the three-leaf stage. Some plants had, e.g., four 

 big leaves of over 15 cm. length, while other plants had eight 

 small leaves of 5 cm. length. The "R" class as defined 

 represents a merging of two size classes defined in the original 

 MTNHP study (the medium and large rosette classes; Schassberger 

 1991) ; and a splitting of the single "rosette" class that 

 encompassed seedlings in the USFS monitoring study (Field and 

 Lovelace 1991) . It is possible that some of the leaf size/leaf 

 number proportion differences reflect the timing of fall vs. 

 spring germination. Without any discrete break among rosettes, 

 all rosettes were placed in a single rosette category. 



Regarding distinctions between genets and ramets, Cirsium 

 lonaistylum is said to reproduce both sexually and asexually by 

 biennial offsets from a perennial "underground stem" (Moore and 

 Frankton 1963) . Paired seedlings and rosettes were present at 

 low numbers at Kings Hill, and digging outside the plots 

 indicated that plants within less than ca. 2 cm were attached 

 below ground. Paired flowering stems were very rare. Some 

 showed different bract characteristics. Digging of flowering 

 plants outside of the plots indicated that any offshoots came off 

 at near-vertical angles from a perennial rootstock did not have 

 offshoot development except at the apex. Plants growing within 

 ca. 2 cm of one another were recorded as single individuals. 



