Wasatch Plants: Big Sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata Nutt.)

Photo: Big Sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata Nutt.) – photo: Ashley Brown

WASATCH MOUNTAINS, Utah — Big Sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata Nutt.) is an evergreen shrub native to Utah. The plant produces two crops of leaves each year; the spring leaves replace the fall leaves and vice-versa. It’s an essential food source for sage grouse, moose, elk, deer, and big horn sheep, particularly in the winter. The Natural History Museum of Utah records dozens of uses in indigenous communities, frequently as tea, a compress, or a topical used to treat cold remedies.

The small flowers bloom from August through September. The velvety silvery-green or green-blue leaves are small and slender with tiny lobes (frequently 3-lobed) at the tips. The gray-brown bark might be gnarled, while the newer stems are green. The whole plant grows between 1 and 16 feet tall.

Look for sage in dry, gravelly, rocky, and well-draining soils in mountain foothills and valleys between 1,900 and 7,000 feet elevation. It often grows in a plant community with rabbitbrush and juniper.