Forest represent 

 new county records 

 (Figure 8) . Prior 

 to 1992, its 

 rangewide 

 distribution was 

 considered to be 

 limited to the 

 Little Belt and 

 Castle Mountains 

 on the Lewis & 

 Clark National 

 Forest. 



2. CURRENT SITES: Ten of the 31 sites mentioned above 



occur in the Helena National Forest, with nine in 

 the Big Belt Mountains and one in the Elkhorn 

 Mountains. Only one of these occurrences (Duck 

 Creek Pass road, EOR# 006) was known previously to 

 this study. More detailed information for each 

 site including population features and the 

 location on a USGS 7.5' topographic map can be 

 found in Appendix 5. 



3. UNVERIFIED/UNDOCUMENTED REPORTS: None known. 



HABITAT 



1. ASSOCIATED VEGETATION: Cirsium longistylum occurs in 

 open meadows which are dominated by grasses and 

 forbs (Figure 7) , but which sometimes include 

 Potentilla fruticosa , indicating moderately mesic 

 conditions (Schassberger 1991) . Cirsium 

 longistylum is found in both relatively pristine 

 and somewhat disturbed sites (i.e., roadsides, 

 trails, clearcuts, etc.) In the more natural 

 sites in the study area, C. longistylum is found 

 in the Festuca scabrel la - Fes tuca idahoensis plant 

 association and Deschampsia cespitosa - Danthonia 

 parrvi habitat type. Other associates in natural 

 settings include: 



Achillea millefolium 

 Agropyron caninum 

 Agropyron spicatum 

 Agrostis scabra 

 Anemone sp. 



Antennaria microphvlla 

 Arabis drummondii 

 Aster foliaceus 

 Astragalus agrestis 

 Bromus carinatus 



28 



