Search Communities by Types
The Community Ecology Field Guide offers descriptions and related information about some of Montana Natural Communities. The list of commuities available via this guide will grow as the information becomes available. Use the options below to access the field guide information either by physognomic class or alphabetical list. You may also want to view the 2002 List of Ecological Communities for Montana as a PDF file.
SELECT by a Physognomic Class
and then view the class list by either Latin Name or Common Name.- Forest
- Woodland
- Shrubland
- Dwarf Shrubland
- Herbaceous Vegetation
- Sparse Vegetation
- Nonvascular
Or VIEW the Entire Community List (for which we have descriptions)
alphabetically by either Latin Name or Common Name.- Alkali cordgrass Herbaceous Vegetation
- Alkali sacaton Southern Plains grassland
- Aquatic sedge Wet Meadow
- Baltic rush wet Meadow
- Beaked sedge Wet Meadow
- Beaked spikerush Herbaceous Vegetation
- Black cottonwood / red-oiser dogwood Forest
- Black greasewood / western wheatgrass - (thickspike wheatgrass) Shrub Prairie
- Bluebunch wheatgrass - blue grama Mixedgrass Prairie
- Bluebunch wheatgrass - cushion plant Herbaceous Vegetation
- Bluebunch wheatgrass - short-stem wild buckwheat Sparse Vegetation
- Bluebunch wheatgrass - sideoats grama Mixedgrass
- Bluejoint reedgrass Wet Meadow
- Bog birch / beaked sedge Shrubland
- Booth's willow / bluejoint reedgrass Shrubland
- Broadleaf cattail Marsh
- Buffaloberry Shrubland
- Buxbaum's sedge Wet Meadow
- Chokecherry Shrubland
- Columbia sedge Wet Meadow
- Common spikerush Wet Meadow
- Creeping juniper / little bluestem Dwarf shrubland
- Curly sedge - sheep cinquefoil Herbaceous Vegetation
- Drummond's rush - woolly pussytoes Herbaceous Vegetation
- Drummond's willow / beaked sedge Shrubland
- Engelmann spruce (X glauca) / common horsetail Forest
- Engelmann spruce / bluejoint reedgrass Forest
- Engelmann spruce / red-osier dogwood Woodland
- Engelmann spruce / skunk cabbage Forest
- Entire-leaved avens - sedge spp. Dwarf-shrub Herbaceous Vegetation
- Foxtail barley Meadow
- Geyer willow / beaked sedge Shrubland
- Geyer willow / bluejoint reedgrass Shrubland
- Hardstem bulrush Marsh
- Hoary willow / beaked sedge Shrubland
- Idaho fescue - mountain meadow cinquefoil Herbaceous Vegetation
- Idaho fescue - Richardson's needlegrass Herbaceous Vegetation
- Idaho fescue - spike fescue Herbaceous Vegetation
- Idaho fescue - thread leaf sedge Meadow
- Inflated sedge Herbaceous Vegetation
- Limber pine / common juniper Woodland
- Limber pine / Idaho fescue Woodland
- Little bluestem - plains muhly Herbaceous Vegetation
- Mud sedge Herbaceous Vegetation
- Nebraska sedge Wet Meadow
- Nuttall's alkali grass Herbaceous Vegetation
- Parry's rush - Bear River fleabane Herbaceous Vegetation
- Plains cottonwood / western snowberry Woodland
- Ponderosa pine / bluebunch wheatgrass Woodland
- Prairie Cordgrass Western Herbaceous Vegetation
- Prairie sandreed - needle-and-thread Prairie
- Prairie sandreed - sun sedge Prairie
- Red Saltwort Herbaceous Vegetation
- Red-oiser dogwood Shrubland
- Rocky Mountain juniper / little-seed ricegrass Woodland
- Ross' avens - alpine stitchwort Herbaceous Vegetation
- Russet sedge Herbaceous Vegetation
- Sago pondweed - Beaked Ditch-grass Herbaceous Vegetation
- Sago pondweed - horned pondweed Submerged Wetland
- Sago pondweed - water-milfoil Submerged Wetland
- Sandbar willow / Mesic Graminoid Shrubland
- Silver sagebrush / needle-and-thread Shrub Prairie
- Silver sagebrush / western wheatgrass Shrub Prairie
- Silver sagebrush / western wheatgrass Shrubland
- Single spike sedge - mountain meadow cinquefoil Herbaceous Vegetation
- Skunk bush sumac / little bluestem Shrub Prairie
- Slender sedge Herbaceous Vegetation
- Softstem bulrush Temperate Herbaceous Vegetation
- Spike sedge - Ross' avens Herbaceous Vegetation
- Subalpine fir / gooseberry Forest
- Subalpine fir / bluejoint reedgrass Forest
- Subalpine fir / clasping twisted-stalk Forest
- Subalpine fir / elk sedge Forest
- Subalpine fir / heartleaf arnica Forest
- Subalpine fir / pinegrass Forest
- Thickspike wheatgrass - silverleaf phacelia Herbaceous Vegetation
- Threetip sagebrush / bluebunch wheatgrass Shrub Herbaceous Vegetation
- Threetip sagebrush / rough fescue Shrub Herbaceous Vegetation
- Threeway sedge Seasonally Flooded Herbaceous Vegetation
- Water Horsetail Marsh
- Western porcupine grass - thickspike wheatgrass Herbaceous Vegetation
- Western snowberry Shrubland
- Western wheatgrass - blue grama - threadleaf sedge Herbaceous Vegetation
- Western wheatgrass - green needlegrass Mixedgrass
- Western wheatgrass - inland saltgrass Saline Prairie
- Western wheatgrass - spikerush spp. Mixedgrass Prairie
- Western wheatgrass Mixedgrass Prairie
- White dryas - serpent-grass Dwarf-shrub Herbaceous Vegetation
- Wild buckwheat- snakeweed Badlands Sparse Vegetation
- Woolly sedge - narrow-spike reedgrass Herbaceous Vegetation
- Woolly sedge Herbaceous Vegetation
- Wyoming big sagebrush / bluebunch wheatgrass Shrub Herbaceous Vegetation
- Wyoming big sagebrush / thickspike wheatgrass Shrubland