Big Sagebrush
| Artemisia tridentata | |
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| Sagebrush growing in San Juan County, New Mexico | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Asterids |
| Order: | Asterales |
| Family: | Asteraceae |
| Genus: | Artemisia |
| Species: | A. tridentata |
| Binomial name | |
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Artemisia tridentata Nutt. |
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| Natural range of Artemisia tridentata | |
| Synonyms | |
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Synonymy
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Artemisia tridentata, commonly called "big sagebrush",Great Basin sagebrush or "sagebrush", is an aromatic shrub from the family Asteraceae, which grows in arid and semi-arid conditions, throughout a range of cold desert, steppe, and mountain habitats in the Intermountain West of North America. The vernacular name "sagebrush" is also used for several related members of the genus Artemisia, such as California Sagebrush (Artemisia californica).
Big Sagebrush and other Artemisia shrubs are the dominant plant species across large portions of the Great Basin. The range extends northward through British Columbia's southern interior, south into Baja California, and east into the western Great Plains of New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, and the Dakotas.
Several major threats exist to sage brush ecosystems, including human settlements, conversion to agricultural land, grazing, invasive plant species, wildfires, and climate change.
Sagebrush provides food and habitat for a variety of species, such as sage grouse, pronghorn antelope, gray vireo, pygmy rabbit, and mule deer. Artemisia tridentata is the state flower of Nevada.
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Wikipedia