INTRODUCTION 



Passage of the Federal Endangered Species Act of 1973 and 

 subsequent recognition of the value of conserving biotic 

 diversity (Wilson 1988) have resulted in many government agencies 

 becoming active in species conservation. Surveys to determine 

 the location and size of populations of rare species are being 

 conducted on public lands throughout the west. These surveys are 

 necessary in any species conservation program; however, knowing 

 the location and size of populations at any one point in time is 

 only the first step in a long-term protection strategy (Sutter 

 1986) . Understanding the population dynamics of long-lived 

 perennials is especially difficult because noticeable changes 

 usually occur slowly, and important growth-limiting population- 

 level events, such as bouts of recruitment or catastrophic 

 mortality may occur only at infrequent intervals (Braughman and 

 Murphy 1990) . Thus, long-term monitoring of growth, fecundity, 

 recruitment and mortality is essential for understanding the 

 condition and trends of plant populations, particularly long- 

 lived, slow-growing species. 



Shoshonea ( Shoshonea pulvinata Evert & Constance) is a long- 

 lived, mat-forming perennial in the Carrot Family (Apiaceae) . 

 This recently described species (Evert and Constance^ 1982) 

 comprises a monotypic genus endemic to the Beartooth and Pryor 

 mountain ranges of Carbon County, Montana and the Absaroka and 



