''Artemisia rigida'' is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common names scabland sagebrush and stiff sagebrush. It is native to 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 ...

, in Washington,

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), ...

, and

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 ...

.Biota of North America Program 2014 county distribution map
/ref> It has been recorded in western

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

but these sightings may have been misidentifications.McWilliams, Jack. 2003
''Artemisia rigida''.
In: Fire Effects Information System, nline U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory.

Description

''Artemisia rigida'' is a small, spreading, deciduous

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 ...

with many woody branches up to 40 centimeters long. The stems mature to gray and hairy and are often reddish during early growth.''Artemisia rigida''.
Flora of North America. The leaves are up to 4 centimeters long and

trident A trident (), () is a three- pronged spear. It is used for spear fishing and historically as a polearm. As compared to an ordinary spear, the three tines increase the chance that a fish will be struck and decrease the chance that a fish will b ...

-shaped. They are grayish in color from their coat of silvery hairs. The similar ''

Artemisia tripartita ''Artemisia tripartita'' is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common name threetip sagebrush. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to Nevada and Montana to Colorado. It covers about 8.4 million ...

'' leaf typically has shorter woolly hairs. The plant is "mildly" to "pungently"''Artemisia rigida''.
USDA FS International Institute of Tropical Forestry. scented. The

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 ...

are somewhat bell-shaped and measure about half a centimeter wide. They contain 4 to 8 yellow-red to red florets.

Range and Ecology

''Artemisia rigida'' grows in harsh substrates where few other plants survive. The soil is generally very shallow and covers

bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid rock that lies under loose material ( regolith) within the crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface material. An exposed portion of bed ...

. The bedrock is always

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

, never

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

.Daubenmire, R. (1982)
The distribution of ''Artemisia rigidia'' in Washington: A challenge to ecology and geology.
''Northwest Science'' 56(3) 162. The roots of the plant are within the shallow soil layer with some anchoring in rock fractures. There is also sometimes a layer of impermeable

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

. The substrate commonly undergoes

frost heaving Frost heaving (or a frost heave) is an upwards swelling of soil during freezing conditions caused by an increasing presence of ice as it grows towards the surface, upwards from the depth in the soil where freezing temperatures have penetrated int ...

, which breaks it up. On these unproductive sites, which occur in the

Channeled Scablands The Channeled Scablands are a relatively barren and soil-free region of interconnected relict and dry flood channels, coulees and cataracts eroded into Palouse loess and the typically flat-lying basalt flows that remain after cataclysmic floods ...

, for example, this plant is a climax species. It is an

indicator Indicator may refer to: Biology * Environmental indicator of environmental health (pressures, conditions and responses) * Ecological indicator of ecosystem health (ecological processes) * Health indicator, which is used to describe the health o ...

of scabland habitat. In the Columbia Basin it often dominates regions with thin rocky soils, and has Sandberg's bluegrass as the main

understory In forestry and ecology, understory (American English), or understorey (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), also known as underbrush or undergrowth, includes plant life growing beneath the Canopy (biology), forest ca ...

species along with various low herbaceous plants such as '' Viola trinervata'' and small ''

Lomatium ''Lomatium'' is a genus in the family Apiaceae. It consists of about 100 species. Its common names include biscuitroot, Indian parsley, and desert parsley. It is in the family Apiaceae and therefore related to many familiar edible species such a ...

'' species.Native Grasslands and Shrub-steppe.
USFWS Hanford Reach National Monument. ''Artemisia rigida'' provides food for wildlife because it is often the only plant exposed as the snow melts in the spring on mostly barren landscapes.

Livestock Livestock are the Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...

also like it, especially the seedheads.

References

External links

The Nature Conservancy
{{Taxonbar, from=Q4797502 rigida Plants described in 1841 Flora of Northern America