SPECIES OF SPECIAL CONCERN 

 Polyqonuinm douqlasii ssp. austinae 

 I. SPECIES INFORMATION 



A. CLASSIFICATION 



1. SCIENTIFIC NAME: Polygonum douqlasii Greene ssp. 



austinae (Greene) Hickman 



2. COMMON NAME: Austin's knotweed 



3. FAMILY: Polygonaceae (Buckwheat Family) 



4. GENUS: There are about 150 species in the genus 



(Hitchcock and Cronquist 1964) , 20 of which occur 

 in Montana (Dorn 1964) . 



5. SPECIES: Polygonum douglasii spp. austinae was 



originally described as a full species, P. 

 austiniae by Greene in 1886. Marcus E. Jones 

 perceived the species close relationship to P. 

 douglasii . and placed austinae as a variety of P. 

 douglasii . Hitchcock and Cronquist in their flora 

 of the Pacific Northwest (1964, 1973) again 

 recognized austinae at species rank although they 

 did state that it was closely related to P. 

 douglasii . Hickman (1984) , as background work for 

 revision of Jepson's California flora, placed 

 austinae as a subspecies of P. douglasii . In the 

 flora of Montana, Dorn (1984) does not include 

 austinae , so it is assumed that he includes it 

 within P. douglasii as he does not list varieties 

 or subspecies for any species. Material with the . 

 leaves of P. d. ssp. douglasii and the branching 

 of P. d. ssp. austinae was collected in the Hunter 

 Gulch site (B. Heidel #891 MONT) for taxonomic 

 consideration. 



B. PRESENT LEGAL OR OTHER FORMAL STATUS 



1. FEDERAL STATUS 



a. U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE: None. 



b. U.S. FOREST SERVICE: Sensitive. 



(See p. 55; Population ecology/Biological 

 inter act ions/ Competition) 



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