California Sagebrush (Artemisia californica) Login         


        Description
  • Height 1 - 8 ft.
  • EW Bloom Aug - Nov
  • Strong spicy smell
  • Tiny pale blue-green leaves are threadlike and evergreen
  • Flowers are very tiny and yellow-green.
  • Widespread, including in very hot and dry places.
  • CA native. Endemic to the California Floristic Province.
  • AKA Coastal Sage Brush, Coast Sagebrush, Sagebrush
  • Aster Family (Asteraceae)



Leaves are very narrow and aromatic. Super tiny flowers cluster in a bowl of phyllaries.



Sagebrush starts branching right at the ground, creating a thick dome shape.


Sagebrush is often paler than the vegetation around it.

   Photo Gallery (33 ) click any picture to enlarge
    

Gray-green leaves are narrow, hairy, and curl under. These features help retain moisture. They're also quite aromatic, using oils called terpenes ...
Sagebrush is dimorphic, growing two sets of leaves each season. In the dry summer sagebrush drops its larger leaves and produces smaller ones, redu ...
Sagebrush is in the Aster Family, and produces heads that contain many [[disk flowers]]. Notice the pale-orange, wide-open [[stigmas]] ready to cat ...
Sagebrush is wind pollinated. Pollen from one plant flies on the wind, and sometimes lands on the open [[stigma]] of another plant. This hit and m ...
Each flower head is about 1/5 inch across, and contains dozens of tiny flowers. The flower heads are surrounded by several rows of [[phyllaries]] t ...