UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



BULLETIN No. 545 



Joint Contribution from the Forest Service, HENRY S. 

 GRAVES, Forester, and the Bureau of Plant Industry, 

 WM. A. TAYLOR, Chief 



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Washington, D. C. 



PROFESSIONAL PAPER. 



October 8, 1917 



IMPORTANT RANGE PLANTS: 

 THEIR LIFE HISTORY AND FORAGE VALUE. 



By Arthur W. Sampson, Plant Ecologist, Forest Service. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Object of the study 1 



Character of the range and forage studied 2 



General morphology of grasses 4 



Important species 4 



Grasses 4 



Key to tribes and genera 5 



Mountain bunch grass 6 



Porcupine grass 9 



Mountain timothy 10 



Slender reed-grass 11 



Alpine redtop 12 



Pine s*rass 13 



Bluejbint 15 



Tufted hair-grass 16 



Slender hair-grass 17 



Spiked trisetum ■ 19 



Mountain June grass 20 



Onion grass 21 



Little bluegrass 22 



Short-awned bromegrass 23 



Soft cheat 24 



Tall meadow-grass 25 



Big bunch grass 26 



Mountain wheat grass 28 



Smooth wild rye 29 



White foxtail 30 



Grasslike plants 31 



Distinctions between grasslike plants 



and grasses 31 



Sedges and rushes 32 



Important species— Continued. 



Grasslike plants — Continued. 



Tall swamp sedge 32 



Sheep sedge. 33 



Elk grass 34 



Rush 35 



Wood rush 36 



Nongrasshke plants 37 



Mountain onion 38 



False hellebore 39 



Fire willow 40 



Wild buckwheat 41 



Geranium 42 



Fireweed 43 



Wild celery 44 



Skunkweed 45 



High huckleberry 46 



' Horsermnt 46 



Blue beardtongue 47 



Mountain elder 48 



Valerian 49 



Mountain dandelion 50 



Woolly weed 51 



Coneflower 52 



Yarrow 53 



Butterweed 54 



Summary 55 



Ecological requirements 55 



Life history 56 



Appendix: Plan of study 61 



OBJECT OF THE STUDY. 



Although practically all types of grazing lands support a variety 

 of plant species, only a certain proportion of the grasses and of the 

 other plants are important from a grazing standpoint. Some species, 

 owing to their wide distribution and abundance, as well as to the 

 relish with which they are cropped, are valuable forage plants; 

 others because of certain chemical contents either during the entire 

 season or at some period of it are poisonous, and therefore seriously 

 objectionable on the range; while still others, either through some 

 peculiar physical structure or because they contain a superabundance 



85154°— Bull. 545—17 1 



