Stansbury Cliffrose

More info for the terms: shrub, tree

Stansbury cliffrose
cliffrose
quinine bush


TAXONOMY:
The scientific name of Stansbury cliffrose is Purshia stansburiana (Torr.)
Henrickson (Rosaceae) [40,96].

Stansbury cliffrose hybridizes with antelope bitterbrush (P.
tridentata) [51,87,97], desert bitterbrush (P. glandulosa) [8,42,62),
and rarely with Apache plume (Fallugia paradora) [8]. Hybrid swarms of
P. stansburiana X P. tridentata are common in Utah [21,85,86,87], and hybrid
swarms of P. stansburiana X P. glandulosa are common in Utah, Nevada, and
southern California [21,87].


LIFE FORM:
Tree, Shrub

FEDERAL LEGAL STATUS:
No special status

OTHER STATUS:
NO-ENTRY




DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES: Purshia stansburiana
GENERAL DISTRIBUTION:
Stansbury cliffrose is distributed from north-central Nevada east to
north-central Utah and south to southern California, central New Mexico, and
northern Mexico [33,41,51,91,93,96,97].

Stansbury cliffrose is distributed from north-central Nevada east to
north-central Utah and south to southern California, central New Mexico, and
northern Mexico [33,41,51,91,93,96,97].



Distribution of Stansbury cliffrose in the United States. Map courtesy of USDA, NRCS. 2018. The PLANTS Database.
National Plant Data Team, Greensboro, NC [2018, June 20] [91].

More info for the terms: severity, surface fire

Since Stansbury cliffrose's sprouting ability is apparently variable,
fire probably should not be used on this species unless postfire
sprouting ability of the population under consideration has been
confirmed. Fire used on sprouting Stansbury cliffrose should be low
severity surface fire since the dormant buds of Stansbury cliffrose root
crowns are apparently killed by severe, and possibly moderate-severity,
fire. Prescribed fires may burn around Stansbury cliffrose growing on
rocky outcrops [106].

More info for the terms: forest, grassland, habitat type, natural, shrub, shrubland, tree, woodland

Plant communities with Stansbury cliffrose include pinyon-juniper
(Pinus-Juniperus spp.) woodland; dry-site, open ponderosa pine (P.
ponderosa var. ponderosa) and Arizona pine (P. ponderosa var. arizonica)
forest; mountain brushland; salt and other desert shrublands; and desert
shrubland-desert grassland ecotones. Plant species commonly associated
with Stansbury cliffrose are listed below.

Pinyon-juniper - Utah juniper (J. osteosperma), alligator juniper (J.
deppeana), California juniper (J. californica), pinyon (P. edulis),
shrub live oak (Quercus turbinella), Apache plume, desert sweet
(Chamaebatiaria millefolium), agarito (Mahonia trifoloilata), banana
yucca (Yucca baccata), Joshua tree (Y. brevifolia), Opuntia spp., New
Mexico needlegrass (Stipa neomexicana), bottlebrush squirreltail (Elymus
elymoides), blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis), fringed sagebrush
(Artemisia frigida), and Louisiana sagewort (A. ludoviciana) [3,4,34,48].

Ponderosa and Arizona pines - antelope bitterbrush, Gambel oak (Q.
gambelii), Oregon-grape (M. repens), blue grama, mountain muhly
(Muhlenbergia montana), and Arizona threeawn (Aristida arizonica)
[14,31,48].

Mountain brushland - mountain snowberry (Symphoricarpos oreophilus),
Utah serviceberry (Amelanchier utahensis), Louisiana sagewort, Sandberg
bluegrass (Poa secunda), and sand dropseed (Sporobolus cryptandrus) [13,66].

Desert shrubland - fourwing saltbush (Atriplex canescens), green
ephedra (Ephedra viridis), broom snakeweed (Gutierrezia sarothrae), big
galleta (Hilaria rigida) [103], bluebunch wheatgrass (Pseudoroegneria
spicata), and cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) [12].

Vegetation classifications describing Stansbury cliffrose as a plant community
dominant are:

A preliminary classification of the natural vegetation of Colorado [3]
Forest and woodland habitat types (plant associations) of Arizona south
of the Mogollon Rim and southwestern New Mexico [4]
Vegetation and soils of Pine and Mathews Canyon Watersheds [7] (NV)
A habitat type classification system for ponderosa pine forests of
northern Arizona [31]
Forest and woodland habitat types (plant associations) of northern New
Mexico and northern Arizona [48]
Habitat and community relationships of cliffrose (Cowania mexicana var.
stansburiana) in central Utah [66]

More info for the terms: shrub, tree

Tree, Shrub

More info for the terms: seed, succession

Stansbury cliffrose is moderately browse tolerant [65]. Plant form
tends to be more branched with moderate browsing than without browsing
[36,39]. Older Stansbury cliffrose plants that grow out of reach of
browsing animals can be a wildlife and livestock management problem [39].
Pruning out-of-reach branches can increase plant branching and
accessibility to browsers [10]. In a 3-year study of Stansbury cliffrose
response to mule deer browsing on the Kaibab Plateau, Julander [39]
found that plants declined with over 80 percent utilization. Seventy to
eighty percent utilization maintained plants but did not permit growth
or seed production; 70 to 75 percent utilization allowed some growth and
seed production; and plants utilized 45 to 65 percent showed good growth
and seed production. Techniques to estimate percentage utilization of
Stansbury cliffrose are presented and evaluated in Jensen and Urness [38].

Stansbury cliffrose sometimes aids in fixing nitrogen [64,70,71].
Stansbury cliffrose is easily inoculated with nitrogen-fixing bacteria
in the laboratory, but root infection by nitrogen-fixing bacteria does
not always occur naturally [71]. Nelson [60] found that in the field,
the number of nodule clusters on roots differed from plant to plant,
site to site, and year to year.

Poor Stansbury cliffrose seedling establishment in the Great Basin,
especially central and northern Utah where Stansbury cliffrose is at the
edge of its range, has been noted since the late 1940's. Factors cited
as possibly contributing to decline include climate change,
overbrowsing, succession, and poor ability of Stansbury cliffrose
seedlings to compete against cheatgrass seedlings for water [32,66]

Dozing, chaining, or cutting may kill older Stansbury cliffrose,
especially single-stemmed individuals. Young, multistemmed individuals
are more likely to sprout after these treatments [95].

More info on this topic.

More info for the term: seed

Flowers first appear from early May to late June, with blooming
continuing until first autumn frost. Seeds from the earliest flowers
mature and disperse from mid-July to August in Utah, with later-produced
seed ripening and dispersing through October [1]. Arizona and
California plants flower from April to September [41,59], with seed
ripening and dispersing through October [73].

More info for the terms: fire regime, root crown, shrub

Tall shrub, adventitious-bud root crown (weak response)

FIRE REGIMES: Find fire regime information for the plant communities in
which this taxon may occur by entering the plant name in the FEIS home page under "Find FIRE REGIMES".

The scientific name of Stansbury cliffrose is Purshia stansburiana (Torr.)
Henrickson (Rosaceae) [40,96].

Stansbury cliffrose hybridizes with antelope bitterbrush (P.
tridentata) [51,87,97], desert bitterbrush (P. glandulosa) [8,42,62),
and rarely with Apache plume (Fallugia paradora) [8]. Hybrid swarms of
P. stansburiana X P. tridentata are common in Utah [21,85,86,87], and hybrid
swarms of P. stansburiana X P. glandulosa are common in Utah, Nevada, and
southern California [21,87].

Cowania alba Goodding, Bot. Gaz. 37: 55. 1904
Cowania mexicana dubia Brand. Zoe 5: 149. 1903.
A branched shrub, 1.5-2.5 m. high, with white bark; leaves 3-5-cleft at the end, tapering into broad petioles, 8-10 mm. long, dark-green and glandular-dotted above, barely tomentose beneath, strongly revolute on the margins; flowers terminal, solitary; hypanthium narrowly funnel-form, glandular-dotted and silvery-tomentose; sepals oblong, obtuse, 3 mm. long; petals white, obovate, irregular, distinctly clawed; pistils 2 or rarely 3; tail of the fruit short, scarcely plumose, hirsute. (Perhaps a hybrid of C. Stansburiana and Purshia tridentata)
Type locality: Bunkerville, Nevada. Distribution: Nevada.