Drobnick and Plummer (1966) have also obtained viable seed by treating fourwing saltbush 

 pistillate flowers with black greasewood pollen. Some of the resultant progeny have 

 been planted in a test plot near Manti, Utah. In our tests, 1 out of 10 pistillate 

 fourwing saltbush branches produced viable seed when cross-pollinated with black grease- 

 wood (table 1) . Additional studies are needed to verify the true nature of these 

 putative hybrids. Bassett and Crompton (1970) report black greasewood to be tetraploid 

 with a chromosome number n - 18. Stutz and Pope (personal communication) have 

 discovered both tetraploid (2n - 36) and octoploid (2n = 72) populations of black 

 greasewood . 



Distribution and Habitat: Black greasewood grows on a wide range of soils, but is 

 most characteristic on rather heavy, alkaline soils where flood waters collect or on 

 soil that have a high water table at least part of the year. Salts accumulate in such 

 areas. Thus greasewood is usually associated with soils of high salt (alkali carbonates, 

 or "black alkali") content (Shantz and Piemeisel 1940; Kearney and Peebles 1960). 



Black greasewood is found at low and middle elevations from Alberta, Canada, south 

 to Texas and California, and from the Dakotas, Colorado, and New Mexico west to 

 Washington, Oregon, and California (Dayton 1931). A smaller species of greasewood, 

 S. baileyi , occurs on desert hillsides and plains in association with shadscale salt- 

 bush, winterfat', and other salt desert shrubs in eastern California and western Nevada. 

 This shrub seldom occurs in pure stands as does S. vermiculatus . 



Black greasewood can be found in nearly pure stands in the more saline areas of its 

 range. In less saline areas, it may be found growing with such shrubs as shadscale 

 saltbush, Gardner saltbush, green rubber rabbitbrush {Chrysothamnus nauseosus ssp. 

 consimilus) , whiteflower, or alkali rabbitbrush {C. albidus) , basin big sagebrush 

 [Artemisia tridentata ssp. tridentata) (fig. 43), bud sagebrush {A. spinescens) , spiny 

 hopsage {Grayia spinosa) , and winterfat {Ceratoides lanata) . 



Figure 45. --A mixed population of black greasewood and basin big sagebrush north of 

 Ephraim, Sanpete County, Utah. 



