The field guides most commonly used to key out plants 

 were Dorn (1984) and Hitchcock and Cronquist (1973). 

 Nomenclature used in this report generally follows one or both 

 of these books. Names for target species coincides with the 

 conventions of the Montana Natural Heritage Program (Heidel 

 and Poole 1993) . 



RESULTS 



We located nearly a hundred populations of thirty target 

 species. The species and resulting rank recommendations are 

 listed in Table 2. This included two native species not 

 previously known from the state, automatically added to the 

 Montana state list of species of concern, and a third which 

 had been reported but not verified was documented in the 

 Montana for the first time. In addition, a Delphinium taxon 

 was discovered that was previously tracked under two different 

 species epithets. The ensuing field and lab investigations 

 will result in it being named as a new subspecies. This does 

 not include three other species which have been or are in the 

 process of being dropped from further consideration by Montana 

 Natural Heritage Program: Castilleja irustica, Eriogonum 

 cespitosum and Orobanche corymbosa . No further information on 

 these taxa are given in this report. 



A total of 382 vascular plant taxa were identified in the 

 study area (Appendix B) . This indicates high species 

 diversity for an area spanning limited range of elevation. 



The remainder of this section is devoted to synopses of 

 each of the 30 target species. Descriptions of the taxa are 

 given to supplement floras (Dorn 1984, or Hitchcock and 

 Cronquist 1973) and to facilitate field identification. 

 Information is presented on the distribution and biology of 

 the species in addition to information specific to the 

 populations within the study area. For each target species, a 

 map showing its distribution in the study area is provided in 

 Appendix C. Information is conveyed concerning the 

 conservation status and management of each taxon. It is 

 recommended that some of the taxa be removed from further 

 consideration by the Bureau of Land Management, and this study 

 provides the basis for their exclusion. These occurrences 

 have not been entered into the Biological Conservation 

 Database, so Appendix D printouts are not supplied, but they 

 are documented on the Appendix C individual species 

 distribution maps. For those species which we recommend 

 retaining, more complete information is given including 

 technical descriptions of the taxa, and EOR's and 1:24,000 

 scale topographic maps showing precise locations and 

 boundaries of all populations (Appendix D) . Photographic 

 slides of some of the plants and their habitats are attached 

 as Appendix E. 



