T8S R4E Section 27, SW^NW^, Section 28 SEhHEh , NEhSE\ - Tens 

 of thousands of plants on open slopes south of Cinnamon 

 Guard Station. 



A number of areas were searched within the Gallatin River 

 drainage system that did not contain C. lanceolata var. flava. 

 However, it is a large area to cover, and there is much 

 unsurveyed habitat with potential to support populations of C. 

 lanceolata var. flava . In addition, three populations of C. 

 lanceolata var. flava were located in 1990 on private land 

 (Flying D Ranch) just north of Spanish Peaks, one of which is 

 within a mile of Gallatin National Forest lands. 



Claytonia lanceolata var. flava was not found in areas 

 searched in the Hyalite Canyon and Hyalite Reservoir vicinity. 

 The meadows in this area did however support large populations of 

 C. lanceolata var. lanceolata . 



Conclusion 



Based on population information acquired from this study and 

 other sources, the Montana Natural Heritage Program state rank 

 for Claytonia lanceolata var. flava will be changed from SI 

 (critically imperiled in Montana because of extreme rarity, 5 or 

 fewer occurrences) , to S3 (rare in Montana, 21 to 100 

 occurrences) . Populations are widespread across the state and 

 occurrences are known from 10 counties in Montana including: 

 Granite, Beaverhead, Silver Bow, Deerlodge, Madison, Gallatin, 

 Sweet Grass, Park, Cascade, and Meagher. Electrophoretic 

 analysis indicates that populations in the East Boulder River 

 drainage are within the flava complex, but are fairly divergent 

 genetically compared to other sampled flava populations. There 

 is also variation among all the populations sampled. This means 

 that each population is genetically distinct to some degree. In 

 order to maintain the genetic diversity of the species, it would 

 be important to preserve as much of each major population as 

 possible. Management for the East Boulder River C. lanceolata 

 var. flava populations should focus on protection for those 

 populations and subpopulations not found within the area impacted 

 by the mining development. 



