Loamy Breaks

Description

The interpretive plant community for this site is the Reference Plant Community. Potential vegetation is about 75 percent grasses or grass-like plants, 10 percent forbs, and 15 percent woody plants. The major grasses include bluebunch wheatgrass, rhizomatous wheatgrass, Indian ricegrass, needleandthread, and bottlebrush squirreltail. Other grasses include Canby, mutton, and Sandberg bluegrass, Letterman needlegrass, needleleaf sedge, plains reedgrass, and prairie junegrass. Black sagebrush is the major woody plant. Other woody plants include Wyoming big sagebrush, green rabbitbrush, and winterfat.

A typical plant composition for this state consists of bluebunch wheatgrass 10 to 25 percent, rhizomatous wheatgrass 10 to 25 percent, needleandthread 5 to 15 percent, Indian ricegrass 5 to 15 percent, bottlebrush squirreltail 5 to 10 percent, other grasses and grass-like plants 10 to 20 percent, perennial forbs 5 to 10 percent, up to 10 percent black sagebrush, and 5 to 15 percent other woody species. Ground cover, by ocular estimate, varies greatly depending on the amount of exposed parent material, and herbage cover ranges from 15 to 30 percent.

The total annual production (air-dry weight) of this state is about 700 pounds per acre (lbs./ac), but it can range from about 500 lbs./acre in unfavorable years to about 900 lbs./acre in above average years.

This plant community is extremely stable and well adapted to the Cool Central Desertic Basins and Plateaus climatic conditions. The diversity in plant species allows for high drought tolerance. This is a sustainable plant community (site/soil stability, watershed function, and biologic integrity).

Transitions or pathways leading to other plant communities are as follows:
• Heavy Continuous Season-long Grazing will convert this plant community to the Black Sage/Forb State.
• Wildfire followed by Continuous Season-long Grazing will convert this plant community to the Rhizomatous Wheatgrass/Forb State.

Submodel