Artemisia spiciformis
Snowfield sagebrush
Family: Asteraceae · Type: shrub · Native
Snowfield sagebrush is a California native shrub found in the Sierra Nevada and White and Inyo Mountains in moist open slopes to rocky meadows at elevations of 2,100 to 3,700 meters. Flowering from July to September, this plant produces small heads of flowers approximately 4.5 to 6 millimeters in diameter, arranged in tight, narrow clusters. Growing 30 to 80 centimeters tall with widely branching stems that are gray-tomentose and capable of root-sprouting, it forms a distinctive winter-deciduous shrub. Its leaves are 2.5 to 5.5 centimeters long, mostly entire or with 3 to 6 irregular teeth, turning yellow as they age. The plant produces 8 to 23 disk flowers and develops small, glabrous fruits approximately 1 millimeter long.
Habitat: Common. Moist open slopes to rocky meadows
Bloom period: Jul-Sep
Elevation: 2100-3700 m
Bioregions: SNH, W&I
Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.