not be used as a source for road building materials in the 

 future. Besides direct damage to the population, quarrying 

 affects upslope habitat by removing lateral support, thus 

 increasing the probability of landslides. In 1993, plants 

 were located away from the road on the east facing slopes 

 along Big Sheep Creek, a tract which has been considered for a 

 possible land trade. Due to its extremely limited 

 distribution in Montana and potentially threatened occurrence, 

 it is recommended that A. cusickii be designated BLM sensitive 

 species. 



Arenaria kingii (Wats.) Jones 

 King's arenaria 



A. DESCRIPTION 



1. General description: This arenaria is a member of the 

 Caryophyllaceae (the pink family) . It is a perennial with 

 narrow grass-like leaves borne mostly in tufts at the base of 

 the plants with a few on the upright flowering stems arranged 

 oppositely and forming distinct swollen nodes. The flowers 

 are borne in an open inflorescence and have five separate 

 acute sepals, five white petals, usually 10 stamens and 3 

 styles, and a single superior ovary which develops into a 6 

 valved capsule. See slides 2 and 3 in Appendix E. 



2. Diagnostic characters: A. kingii is distinguished from the 

 other tall, narrow leaved sandworts in Montana by having an 

 open inflorescence (in contrast to A. congesta) and sharply 

 acute sepals (as opposed to the obtuse or broadly acute sepals 

 of A. aculeata and A. cappilaris) . 



B. GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION 



1. Species range: Mostly of the Great Basin, in California, 

 Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming (Hitchcock and Cronquist 1973) 

 and in Montana. 



2. Montana distribution: Prior to this study, the species was 

 known in Montana from four sites in Beaverhead County, in the 

 Beaverhead and Pioneer Ranges. It was erroneously reported in 

 Broadwater County based on a misidentif ied specimen. 



3. Occurrences in the study area: One population was surveyed 

 in the foothills just south of Clark Canyon Reservoir. In 

 addition, Lesica collected two specimens from the Big Sheep 

 Creek drainage, where he found the species to be common. All 

 three specimens were verified by R. L. Hartman (Rocky Mountain 

 Herbarium, University of Wyoming, Laramie) , a specialist in 

 the Caryophyllaceae. 



