December 2012 Number 1 - Utah Native Plant Society

Utah Native Plant Society
Figure 4. Astragalus rusbyi is located at the positive end of the ‘leaf economic spectrum’ because of its high specific
leaf area and tissue nitrogen concentration. This scatterplot illustrates the results of a principal components analysis
of 133 plant species and 10 functional traits (adapted from Laughlin 2009) that occur in southwestern USA ponderosa
pine forests. Species symbols are coded by plant functional types. A few species names are highlighted: ARPU =
Aristida purpurea, BLTR = Blepharoneuron tricholepis, CAGE = Carex geophila, HECO = Hesperostipa comata,
IRMI = Iris missouriensis, LUAR = Lupinus argenteus, MUMO = Muhlenbergia montana, OXLA = Oxytropis lambertii,
PIPO = Pinus ponderosa, QUGA = Quercus gambelii.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to thank Wally Covington, Margaret
Moore, Pete Fulé, Marta Fisher, Julie Korb, Mark
Daniels, Jon Bakker, and Cheryl Casey and the staff and
students of the Northern Arizona University Ecological
Restoration Institute and School of Forestry who assisted
with data collection. We would also like to thank
Martin Wojciechowski and Jill Craig for their reviews
of the paper and the U.S. Forest Service for providing
funding to carry out the majority of the research described
in this paper.
REFERENCES
Allphin, L., N. Brian and T. Matheson. 2005. Reproductive
success and genetic divergence among varieties
of the rare and endangered Astragalus cremnophylax
(Fabaceae) from Arizona, USA. Conservation Genetics.
6: 803-821.
Anderson, D.G. 2004. Populations Status Survey of
Schmoll’s Milkvetch (Astragalus schmolliae C.L. Porter).
Prepared for National Park Service Mesa Verde
National Park. Colorado Natural Heritage Program. Fort
Collins, CO. 81 pp.
Barneby, R.C. 1964. Atlas of North American Astragalus.
Memoirs of The New York Botanical Garden.
13:1–1188.
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