''Artemisia papposa'' is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common names Owyhee sage, Owyhee sagebrush, and fuzzy sagebrush. It is native to the

Snake River Plain The Snake River cutting through the plain leaves many canyons and Canyon#List of gorges, gorges, such as this one near Twin Falls, Idaho The Snake River Plain is a geology, geologic feature located primarily within the U.S. state of Idaho. ...

and surrounding areas in the northwestern

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, occurring in southern

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...

, eastern

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

, and northern

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

.''Artemisia papposa''.
The Nature Conservancy. This small aromatic

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

grows up to 15 or 20 centimeters tall with several grayish stems. The small gray-green leaves are usually lobed. The

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

is an array of several

flower heads A pseudanthium (; : pseudanthia) is an inflorescence that resembles a flower. The word is sometimes used for other structures that are neither a true flower nor a true inflorescence. Examples of pseudanthia include flower heads, composite flowers ...

containing yellow ray and disc florets. The fruit is an

achene An achene (; ), also sometimes called akene and occasionally achenium or achenocarp, is a type of simple fruit, simple dry fruits, dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. Achenes are monocarpellate (formed from one carpel) and Dehi ...

. Unlike those of most other '' Artemisia'', the achenes of this species are topped with pappi.''Artemisia papposa''.
Flora of North America.Blake, Sydney Fay & Cronquist, Arthur John 1950. Leaflets of Western Botany 6(2): Plate 1, figures 1-3
line drawings of ''Artemisia papposa'' ''Artemisia papposa'' grows on

sagebrush steppe Sagebrush steppe also known as the sagebrush sea, is a type of shrub-steppe, a plant community characterized by the presence of shrubs, and usually dominated by sagebrush, any of several species in the genus '' Artemisia''.

, and in meadows, alkali flats, and sagebrush-juniper associations. It grows alongside plants such as thymeleaf and mat buckwheats (''Eriogonum thymoides'' and ''E. caespitosum'', respectively), lava aster (''Ionactis alpina''), whip pussytoes (''Antennaria flagellaris''), onespike danthonia (''Danthonia unispicata''), western needlegrass (''Achnatherum occidentale'' ssp. ''occidentale''), barestem biscuitroot (''Lomatium nudicaule''), and Sandberg bluegrass (''Poa secunda''). It occurs in mid-elevation habitat, often in shallow, rocky, poorly drained soils.Meyer, Rachelle. 2009
''Artemisia papposa''.
In: Fire Effects Information System, nline U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q604711 papposa Flora of the Northwestern United States Plants described in 1950 Taxa named by Arthur Cronquist Taxa named by Sidney Fay Blake