Index / Search / Picrothamnus desertorum
§1 Plant
Picrothamnus desertorum Nutt.
vernacular bud sagebrush — species · Asteraceae
§2Habit & range
Habit and range
- Growth habit
- Shrub, Subshrub
- Duration
- Perennial
- Group
- Dicot
- Family
- Asteraceae Bercht. & J. Presl
- Genus
- Picrothamnus
§2a
Native status, by region
- L48 Lower 48 States Native
§2b
County-level range
· 74 counties across 10 states/territories§3Cultivation specs · USDA
Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.
§3a
Tolerances
- Drought
- High
- Shade
- High
- Moisture use
- Low
- Fire
- Low
- Salinity
- Medium
- Anaerobic
- None
- CaCO₃
- High
- Hedging
- High
§3b
Climate & soil
- Cold tolerance
- -43 °F minimum
- Frost-free days
- 90 min.
- Precipitation
- 6–10 in/yr
- pH range
- 6–8.5
- Root depth
- 20 in min.
- Fertility need
- Low
- Soil texture
- coarse, medium, fine
§3c
Form & growth
- Growth form
- Multiple Stem
- Growth rate
- Slow
- Lifespan
- Long
- Mature height
- 2 ft
- Height @ 20 y
- 2 ft
- Foliage texture
- Coarse
- Foliage colour
- Gray-Green
- Porosity (summer)
- Dense
- Porosity (winter)
- Porous
- Flower colour
- Yellow
- Fruit colour
- Brown
- Fire resistant
- No
- N fixation
- None
- Toxicity
- Moderate
§3d
Reproduction
- Bloom period
- Mid Spring
- Seed abundance
- Medium
- Seed begins
- Spring
- Seed ends
- Summer
- Spread rate
- Slow
- Stratify
- No
- Seeds / lb
- 900,000
- 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 74 counties across 10 states/territories.
Arizona view state ↗ 1 N ▾
California view state ↗ 7 N ▾
Colorado view state ↗ 7 N ▾
Idaho view state ↗ 10 N ▾
Montana view state ↗ 3 N ▾
Nevada view state ↗ 14 N ▾
New Mexico view state ↗ 2 N ▾
Oregon view state ↗ 3 N ▾
Utah view state ↗ 18 N ▾
§5Sources & provenance
USDA PLANTS
Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.
plants.usda.gov/PIDE4 ↗GBIF Backbone
Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.
gbif.org/species/3100915 ↗Record version
Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:
usda-plants-mt-2026-05-26
fetched 2026-05-26T16:37:38Z