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.

?