Artemisia arbuscula Nutt.

vernacular little sagebrush — species · Asteraceae

USDA: ARAR8
GBIF: 3120855
Rank: species

little sagebrush (Artemisia arbuscula) — Platephotograph · Matt BergerCC BY source · iNaturalist ↗

§2Habit & range

Growth habit: Shrub, Subshrub
Duration: Perennial
Group: Dicot
Family: Asteraceae Bercht. & J. Presl
Genus: Artemisia

§2a

Native status, by region

L48 Lower 48 States Native

§2b

County-level range

· 7 counties across 1 state

Legend Native · 7 Introduced · 0 Both · 0 Hover a county for detail.

§3Cultivation specs · USDA

Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.

§3a

Tolerances

Drought: High
Shade: High
Moisture use: Low
Fire: None
Salinity: Medium
Anaerobic: None
CaCO₃: High
Hedging: Low

§3b

Climate & soil

Cold tolerance: -43 °F minimum
Frost-free days: 90 min.
Precipitation: 7–20 in/yr
pH range: 5.5–8.6
Root depth: 10 in min.
Fertility need: Low
Soil texture: coarse, medium, fine

§3c

Form & growth

Growth form: Single Stem
Growth rate: Slow
Lifespan: Long
Mature height: 2 ft
Height @ 20 y: 2 ft
Foliage texture: Medium
Foliage colour: Gray-Green
Porosity (summer): Moderate
Porosity (winter): Porous
Flower colour: White
Fruit colour: Brown
Fire resistant: No
N fixation: None
Toxicity: None

§3d

Reproduction

Bloom period: Late Summer
Seed abundance: High
Seed begins: Summer
Seed ends: Fall
Spread rate: Slow
Stratify: Yes
Seeds / lb: 980,000
Propagation: seed, bare root, container

§3e

Use & availability

Commercial availability: No Known Source
Nursery stock: No
Browse palatability: Medium
Graze palatability: Low
Palatable, human: No
Protein potential: Medium
Lumber: No
Christmas tree: No

§4Counties, by state

Recorded in 7 counties across 1 state.

Montana view state ↗ 7 N ▾

§5Sources & provenance

USDA PLANTS

Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.

plants.usda.gov/ARAR8 ↗

GBIF Backbone

Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.

gbif.org/species/3120855 ↗

Record version

Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:

usda-plants-mt-2026-05-26

fetched 2026-05-26T05:45:41Z