Title: Characteristics and hybridization of important intermountain shrubs
Identifier: characteristicsh177blau (find matches)
Year: 1976 (1970s)
Authors: Blauer, A. Clyde
Subjects: Chenopodiacae; Shrubs Great Basin
Publisher: Ogden, Utah : Intermountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, Forest Service, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture
Contributing Library: U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Library
Digitizing Sponsor: U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Library

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Figure 66.—Spineless hopsage poputoxion in )ioi'ti\h)estp-rn Ayiteii'>vt^ Valley, Sanpete County, Utah. only one produced viable seed (table 1). Unfortunately, none o£ the resultant seedlings survived. These progeny are essential for verifying the nature of the purported crosses We are confident that our continuing hybridization work, associated with better care of any resultant seedlings, will yield the needed progeny. Spineless hopsage is tetraploid with a chromosome number of 2n = 36 (C. L. Pope and E. D. McArthur, data on file at Shrub Sciences Laboratory, Provo, Utah). Distribution and habitat: Spineless hopsage is generally restricted to shale formations of the Upper Colorado River Drainage. It favors silty clay loam soil derived from shales. Collotzi (1966) noted it occurred under mildly alkaline (pH 7.4 to 7.7) conditions. Other populations occur on similar soils in central Utah (fig. 36) and in southeastern Colorado. Use: This species may be used as browse by livestock and big game. It germinates and produces seedlings readily; but, unless protected, these are quickly taken by rodents and rabbits. These small mammals have shown a high preference for the seedlings established at several locations. Kingsbury (1964) lists spineless hopsage as a possible secondary or facultative selenium absorber. As such, it could be mildly poisonous in areas where the soil contains selenium. Grayia spinosa (spiny hopsage) Spiny hopsage is an erect, diffusely branched, spinescent shrub from 3 to 12 dm in height (fig. 37). It differs in many respects from spineless hopsage, but both species have similar utricles (fig. 7, 35, 38). 29

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