California sagebrush is a stout, woody, grayish-green shrub growing typically to about 5' tall, rounded and much-branched from the base.  It is very aromatic and frequently fills the air around it with its lovely scent.  The stems are very flexible and wandlike, glabrous or canescent.  The alternate, strigulose leaves are clustered in bunches, 3/8" to 2" long, pinnately-divided into 2-4 filiform segments.  There are many heads in long racemose panicles, 3-5 mm in diameter, and nodding in fruit.  Each disciform head has 6-10 minute, marginal pistillate flowers and 15-30 disk flowers.  California sagebrush is extremely common on lower slopes and fans of dry foothills to 2500' in coastal sage scrub and chaparral throughout Southern California, blooming August to December.

Click here for Latin name derivations: 1) Artemisia 2) californica.
Peonunciation: ar-tem-EE-see-a ka-li-FOR-ni-ka.
Click here for Botanical Term Meanings.