Official Nevada State Flower

Sagebrush

(Artemisia tridentata or trifida)

Adopted on March 20, 1917.

Nevada's state flower is sagebrush, Artemisia tridentata.  Adopted March 20, 1917, it has small yellow and white flowers in the spring grows abundantly in the deserts of the Western United States. A member of the wormwood family, sagebrush is a branching bush (1 to 12 feet high) and grows in regions where other kinds of vegetation cannot subsist. Known for its pleasant aroma, its gray-green twigs, and pale yellow flowers, sagebrush is an important winter food for sheep and cattle Native Americans used sagebrush leaves as medicine and sagebrush bark for weaving mats.

Sagebrush grows abundantly in the deserts of the Western United States. A member of the wormwood family, sagebrush is a branching bush (1 to 12 feet high) and grows in regions where other kinds of vegetation cannot subsist. Known for its pleasant aroma, its gray-green twigs, and pale yellow flowers, sagebrush is an important winter food for sheep and cattle.

• Leaf: Simple, alternate (but typically clustered at each node), persistent (but some leaves are drought deciduous). Small (1/2 to 2 inches long) and narrowly wedge-shaped with a 3-lobed apex; silvery-green and pubescent on both surfaces; strong scented; sessile.
• Flower: Monoecious. Very small, yellowish, and tubular; borne in small heads on long, upright spikes; some flowers perfect and some imperfect.
• Fruit: Very small achenes; 4 or 5-sided or ribbed
• Twig: Young twigs are slender, silvery-gray, and pubescent, becoming grayish-brown as they age.
• Bark: Grayish-brown, shreddy, and splitting lengthwise.
• Form: An upright, evergreen shrub commonly growing from several to 15 feet tall. Silvery-green and strongly scented with gray shreddy bark.