Artemisia spinescens

Budsage

Family: Asteraceae · Type: shrub · Native

Budsage is a California native shrub found in the Sonoran Borderlands, Great Basin, and Mojave Desert in clay or gravelly, often saline soils at elevations of 650 to 2,050 meters. Flowering from April to June, this plant produces pale yellow to white flowers in tiny heads 2 to 3 millimeters wide, arranged in flat-topped or ball-like clusters. Growing as a stout, mound-like shrub up to 3 decimeters tall, it develops thorny old branches and is pungently aromatic. Its leaves are palmately divided into 2 to 5 linear or spoon-shaped segments, densely covered in soft hairs and creating a round overall shape. The fruit is a small, hairy obovoid seed 1 to 1.5 millimeters long with obscure ribs.

Habitat: Clay or gravelly, often saline soils, saltbush scrub

Bloom period: Apr-Jun

Elevation: 650-2050 m

Bioregions: SnBr, GB, DMoj

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.