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.
NRS 235.050 State flower. The
shrub known as sagebrush (Artemisia
tridentata or trifida) is hereby
designated as the official state
flower of the State of Nevada.
(Added to NRS by 1959, 107; A 1967,
702)
Taxonomic Hierarchy
|
Kingdom |
Plantae -- Plants |
Subkingdom |
Tracheobionta --
Vascular plants |
Superdivision |
Spermatophyta -- Seed
plants |
Division |
Magnoliophyta --
Flowering plants |
Class |
Magnoliopsida –
Dicotyledons |
Subclass |
Asteridae – |
Order |
Asterales – |
Family |
Asteraceae – Aster
family |
Genus |
Artemisia L. –
sagebrush |
Species |
Artemisia tridentata
Nutt. – big sagebrush |
|