
          -20-

over-grazing which has widely destroyed them elsewhere.  All the four
areas listed have been given some special protection by ruling families,
primarily as grazing reserves for valuable horses and camels.
At the present time pastures on Kuhe Sahand and Kuhe Demevand are
maintained for cavalry horses by the Iranian army.

The slope grassland consists mainly of species of Bromus,
Festuca, and Agropyron.  Many communities are dominated by the first
two genera and can be designated as the Bromus-Festuca association.
Bromus is particularly rich in species, varieties, and intergrading
forms.  Members of these two genera are accompanied by many species
in the genera Oryzopsis, Poa, Agropyron, Elymus, Andropogon, and
Alopecurus, among others.  They cover the well-drained slopes which
are frequently rocky.  On the better soils they cover up to 70-80%
of the soil surface while retaining a bunchy aspect, or facies as
Clements would have said,  On high volcanic rocky slopes extensive
colonies of Agropyron cristatus frequently replaced the more general
Bromus-Festuca association.  The former may be regarded as a soil
pioneer, while the latter appears as a natural community in balance
with the climate and characteristic of extensive areas between 9,000
and 11,000 feet elevations in northwestern Iran, photos  ,    .

Agropyron 15510 (229582) on the better soils of Kuhe
Sabelon formed a 100% consociational cover, photos  ,  . The
stature of such stands varied from shin-high to hip-high, depending
upon slope exposure and soil depth.  Agropyron 15503 (229581) also
formed nearly pure communities upon the loose volcanic tuffa sand of
the same mountain at around 8000-8500 feet elevations, but as a bunch
        