Abstract
Large areas of land in the Intermountain Western sagebrush steppe ecosystem are degraded from invasive weed proliferation and changes in natural fire regimes. Restoration and reclamation practices often use seeding of climax community species; however, results are discouraging. We hypothesized that seed mixes that mimic natural ecological succession and include representation of species from multiple successional states would have better initial establishment and facilitate the transition to desired plant communities. We conducted a phenotypic and genotypic characterization of 25 collections of curlycup gumweed, a short-lived, early successional forb, to guide plant materials germplasm development of the species. We also conducted trials evaluating curlycup gumweed’s optimal seeding depth in different soil textures, and we evaluated seed harvesting methods to aid the seed industry adoption of the species. Finally, we conducted a multi-site field trial to compare seed mixes containing different representations of successional groups and seeding rates.