Sagebrush
Sagebrush, or Big Sagebrush (or Common Sagebrush, Blue Sage, Black Sage) is the common name for Artemisia tridentata, a shrub or small tree from the composite family (Asteraceae).
This name is also used for several similar members of the Artemisia genus, such as California sagebrush (Artemisia californica).
It is a coarse, hardy blue-gray bush with yellow flowers, and grows in arid sections of the western United States. It is the primary vegetation across vast areas of the Great Basin desert. Along rivers or in other relatively wet areas, sagebrush can grow as tall as 10 feet (3 meters). In dry areas, it is often little more than 1 foot (0.3 meters) in height.
Sagebrush has a strong pungent fragrance, especially when wet, which is not unlike common sage. It is, however, unrelated to common sage and has a bitter taste.
Its small yellow flowers grow into long, slender clusters.
The alternate silvery leaves are wedge-shaped. They have 3-toothed indentations at the apex. They have a lenght of about 4 cm (1,5 inches). These leaves contain an oil that is toxic to the symbiotic bacteria in the rumen of most ruminants, including cattle, sheep, deer and elk but not pronghorn. Non-tolerant ruminants forced to eat sagebrush due to the lack of other fodder in the winter often freeze to death before starving, as they rely in large part on the heat of their digestive action for warmth. Such a condition is known as "hollow stomach" to local ranchers.
In the Great Basin, sagebrush is the dominant plant life in the Upper Sonoran and Boreal life zones, and is the primary understory species in the Transitional zone between them. Prior to heavy grazing by cattle and sheep of these areas, sagebrush is thought to have been less dominant, and perennial grasses more common.
In the Lower Sonoran life zone, sagebrush is displaced by members of the Atriplex genus such as shadscale and fourwinged saltbrush (which are often mistaken for sagebrush).
In general, sagebrush is ubiquitous everywhere in the Great Basin except for valleys seeing less than 8 inches (200 mm) of rain a year.
Sagebrush is the state flower of Nevada.
