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4-43 <br />another important shrub, has a cover of 3.9 percent. Shrubs <br />• present but with a relatively low cover include: shadscale <br />saltbush Atriplex confertifolia, fOUrwing saltbush Atriplex <br />canescens, rubber rabbitbrush Chrysothamnus nauseosus, and <br />seepweed Suaede torreyana. <br />The herbaceous understory is dominated by cheatgrass aromas <br />tectorum (33.1 percent) and annual forbs including African <br />mustard Malcomia africana (3.1 percent), clasping pepperweed <br />Lepidium perfoliatum (1.4 percent), Powell saltweed Atriplex <br />powellii (1.2 percent), and Russian thistle Salsola iberica <br />(0.8 percent). Whitetop Cardaria drabs, a perennial noxious <br />weed, has a cover of 0.7 percent. <br />Salina wildrye Elymus salinus, sand dropseed Sporobolus cryptan- <br />drus, western wheatgrass Agropyron smithii, the only perennial <br />native grasses present in the cover transects have a low cover <br />as do the native perennial forbs. Plains pricklypear cactus <br />• opuntia polyacantha is conspicuously present with a cover of <br />0.4 percent. <br />Production <br />Herbaceous production ranged from a low of 19.1 g/m2 to a <br />high of 165.7 g/m2 but averaged 58.6 g/m2 or 522 lbs/ac. <br />cheatgrass with a production of 41.7 g/m2 contributed 77.1 <br />percent of the total biomass. Perennial native grasses con- <br />tributing to production include sand dropseed,junegrass stipa <br />comata, saliva wildrye, squirreltail Sitanion longifolium, and <br />Sandberg bluegrass Poa sandbergii. Total forb production is <br />13.9 g/m2. See Table 4.5-4S. <br />Shrub Height and Density <br />Shrub density within the vegetation type averaged 14.9 individuals/ <br />19.6 m2 or 3067 individuals/ac. Dominant shrubs respectively <br />include big sagebrush, greasewood, seepweek, shadscale, and others. <br />• See Tables 4.5-SS and 4.5-265. <br />