Big Sagebrush

Artemisia tridentata

Hosts 1 caterpillarSpecialist hostPollinator plant

Growing it

When	Flowers August to September; fruits September to October
Type	shrub
Sun	Full sun
Water	Low
Soil	pH 6–8
Hardiness	zone 3–8
Mature height	1.5 m
Mature spread	2.25 m
Spacing	1.5 m
Years to maturity	5
Bloom	Aug–Sep
Flower colour	White not verified, a genus-level estimate
In bloom	August September
Fruit	Sep–Oct
Native to	AB

lobed leaves about 3 cm long; a spreading, branching crown

Where it has been recorded

BothSpecimensObservations

5 squares of about 28 km, each holding at least one record. A square is not a claim that the plant grows throughout it, and an unshaded square is unrecorded rather than empty. Darker squares hold more records, which follows roads and towns as much as it follows the plant. 1 herbarium specimen and 9 field observations this project may redraw. A filled dot is a pressed sheet somebody can re-examine; a hollow ring is a photograph identified by community agreement. Where the dots are dense is where people have looked, not where the plant is commonest, and empty ground is unsurveyed rather than unoccupied. How this map is made.

Which ecoregions the records fall in

Northern Continental Divide south AB: 14 records, medium confidence
Aspen Parkland central AB / SK: 3 records, low confidence

These are counts of records collected somewhere in the region, which is the resolution of the evidence: the map above shows where inside it. A region with 3 records is not the same claim as one with three hundred, so the count travels with the region. A region missing from this list means nobody has recorded it there, which is not the same as the plant being absent. Records within 900 m of a border count for neither side, because the border is not drawn finely enough to say which one they are on. Source: GBIF occurrence search + PRESERVED_SPECIMEN pass, retrieved 2026-08-24. Boundaries digitised from the National Ecological Framework for Canada v2.2 (Ecological Stratification Working Group 1995), simplified to about 900 m for display: an outline is accurate to roughly a kilometre, not to the metre. How these counts are made.

See every observation, live and current, on GBIF or iNaturalist.

Documented animals

14 documented relationships, 1 with a specialist that has no alternative.

nectar for

Agapostemon texanus Poelen et al. 2014
Andrena prunorum Poelen et al. 2014
Hunt's Bumble Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Lasioglossum sisymbrii Poelen et al. 2014
Nevada Bumble Bee Specimen records from www.bumblebeewatch.org
Okanagana bella Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Western Horse Fly Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Western Tiger Swallowtail Specimen records from iNaturalist.org

caterpillar host for

Eutreta diana Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Old World Swallowtail ★Acorn & Sheldon 2006
Rhopalomyia medusa Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Rhopalomyia medusirrasa Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Rhopalomyia obovata Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Rhopalomyia pomum Specimen records from iNaturalist.org

Also worth knowing

Safety

Toxicity not assessed, absence of a warning is not a guarantee of safety

Edible parts

Leaves

Buying it

About $25–$50 per plant (estimate), usually from a native-plant nursery. Estimate (shrub default); AB retail as of 2026

Where these numbers came from

Flower detail: not verified, a genus-level estimate