land, but which are suspected to occur on 

 such lands owing to the presence of suitable 

 habitat. Also, these are plants for which 

 there is concern for population viability 

 within a given state. If found on National 

 Forest lands, these taxa would be designated 

 as sensitive (U.S. Department of Agriculture 

 1988) . Since the establishment of list, A. 

 fecunda was confirmed from 5 locations on the 

 Beaverhead National Forest. Thus, the status 

 should be changed to sensitive on the U.S. 

 Forest Service list. 



2. STATE: Arabis fecunda is currently listed by the 

 Montana Natural Heritage Program (Shelly 1989) as 

 "imperiled in Montana because of rarity" (state 

 rank = S2 (6-20 occurrences)). 



This rank does not currently provide any direct 

 legal protection for the species. 



DESCRIPTION 



1. GENERAL NONTECHNICAL DESCRIPTION: Arabis fecunda 

 is a small, perennial forb, with one to many 

 clusters of basal leaves, and flowering stems that 

 reach 3-12 inches in height. The spatula-shaped 

 basal leaves generally have a smooth margin, and 

 are 1/2-1 inch in length, and 1/8 inch wide. The 

 leaves on the flowering stem are smaller and clasp 

 the stem. A vestiture of dense forked hairs cover 

 the stems and leaves. Inflorescences are 

 congested with flowers, each made up of four white 

 petals 1/4-1/2 inch long, and about 1/8 inch wide. 

 The nearly erect pedicels may be up to 1/2 inch 

 long, and bear fruits 1-2 inches long, and about 

 1/20 inch wide. The fruits are densely hairy, and 

 each side of the fruit contains a single row of 

 round seeds (adapted from Lesica 1985) . 



2. TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION: Perennial with a simple or 

 branched caudex, densely pubescent throughout, 

 with fine dendritically-branched trichomes; stems 

 erect to somewhat decumbent at base, simple or few 

 branched, 1-3 dm. high; leaves hoary, dimorphic- 

 basal leaves petiolate, spatulate to linear 

 oblanceolate, entire or with a few broad teeth in 

 the blade area, 1-3 cm. long, 2-4 mm. wide; 

 cauline leaves sessile, entire or the lower with a 

 few teeth, oblong, acute, sparingly auriculate to 

 nonauriculate, 7-20 mm. long; inflorescences 

 usually congested; sepals oblong, nonsaccate. 



