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 
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 erass 13 
Bluejoint 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 
Page. 
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 
Sigh huckleberry 46 
Horsemmt 46 
Blue beardtongue 47 
Mountain elder 4S 
Valerian 49 
Mountain dandelion 50 
Woolly weed 51 
Coneflbwer 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 
