Large tumbleweed gif3/23/2023 ![]() “The wind will blow topsoil to the base of the sagebrush, and it’ll settle there. “If you put a big shrub out in the middle of the desert, one thing it’s going to do is collect nutrients around it,” says Turner. Sagebrush also acts as a soil anchor and canopy for communities of wildflowers and other small plants. Fish and Wildlife Service/Flickr/Public Domain Greater sage-grouse almost solely rely on sagebrush leaves during the winter. “There must be something in sagebrush that they need or really like.” Credit: Larisa Bogardus/Bureau of Land Management Oregon and Washington/Flickr/ CC BY 2.0 A female greater sage-grouse eats the leaves of Wyoming big sagebrush popping up above the snow in Seeskadee National Wildlife Refuge in southwest Wyoming. “There are a lot of toxins in sagebrush,” Miranda Crowell told BLM. ![]() Bureau of Land Management (BLM) researcher Miranda Crowell in Oregon studying a pygmy rabbit, the world’s smallest rabbit. During the winter, it becomes almost 100% of the adult sage grouse diet, as it stays alive and leafy above the snow line. If you’re lucky, you might spot a pygmy rabbit or the greater sage-grouse nibbling on the plant. ![]() Sagebrush are “the grocery store” in these desert ecosystems, Leger explains, supporting large communities of birds, reptiles, pronghorns, and mule deer. The fragrance lures various wildlife, but Turner says “in order to eat it, these herbivores have had to adapt to deal with these particular compounds.”įor many birds and animals, the tiny flowers and leaves are delicacies. The plants unleash a pungent musk of camphor and aromatic compounds, particularly after a desert rain. Not to be confused with the sage herb that you use to season your cooking, “sagebrush has this wonderful really herbal spikey smell,” Turner says. Maybe even more distinct than its little florets is the smell of sagebrush, which shares the same genus as absinth. But unlike springtime bluebonnets and poppies, she says, “They’re not really showy flowers.” You have to look close to see the dozens of tiny flowers dotting the stalks. Big sagebrush, scientifically known as Artemisia tridentata, is even Nevada’s official state flower. In the late summer and fall, small light yellow buds bloom “off the top of the shrub, kind of like candles on a birthday cake,” says Leger. While mostly recognized for its sea foam-green luster, sagebrush is actually part of the sunflower family. Related Article 11 Things You Didn’t Know About Saguaro Cacti Up close, you can see the small flowers on the stalks of a Wyoming big sagebrush. “It’s literally the foundational shrub of this whole huge, cold desert area.”Ī closeup of a sagebrush's narrow segmented leaves reveals its tiny silver hairs. “It’s one of the only things around here that’s really green all year round,” says Elizabeth Leger, professor and director of the Museum of Natural History at the University of Nevada, Reno. This keystone plant supports over 350 species, including the adorable pygmy rabbit and charismatic greater sage-grouse. Sagebrush growing here creates the largest interconnected habitat in North America, spanning across 175 million acres. But this delicate bush is an essential native plant for desert wildlife-and it’s under threat.Įighteen sagebrush species grow throughout North America’s Great Basin, a massive network of watersheds and prairies that spans the arid lands of Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, and California. “They kind of look like tortured little bonsai trees,” says Kathryn Turner, an evolutionary ecologist and assistant professor at Idaho State University. Growing as tall as your thigh, their lanky limbs seem frozen in a permanently petrified stance. ![]() In the dry landscape of the American West, the sun catches the plant’s fine silver hair like light reflecting off a stormy ocean. The big sagebrush is far from your typical tumbleweed. Credit: Tom Koerner/USFWS Mountain-Prairie/Flickr/Public Domain Taken in Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge in Colorado. Like a frothy sea, these mint green to pale blue plants sweep across the dry, vast vistas of America's Intermountain West.
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