Scientific Family
Asteraceae
Synonyms
Oligosporus filifolius
Other common names
silver sagebrush
sand sagebush
sandhill sage
silvery wormwood
Plant type
Forbs and Subshrubs
Origin
Native
Lifecycle
Perennial
Similar species
A. frigida
Height
1 to 5 feet
Riparian
No
Rounded shrubs with faintly aromatic herbage. Stems green or gray-green, wandlike, usually slender and curved but sometimes stout and stunted in harsh habitats, smooth or sparsely hairy.
Shrubs, woody at least near the base, 1 to 5 feet tall. Stems freely branching; twigs woolly and gray or white. Leaves long and narrow and threadlike, sometimes 3-parted, 1 to 3 inches long, woolly, gray or white in tight clusters.
Habitat
Found in loose, sandy soils; in grasslands and dunes. More common north and east of Yavapai county.
Plant Community
Pinyon Juniper Woodlands
Montane Conifer Forest
Interior Chaparral
Grasslands
Low elevation
4000
High elevation
6500
Flower Characteristics
Heads in a narrow, branched cluster maturing from the bottom upwards. Numerous whorls of bracts below cluster, 1/16 inch high and as wide. 2 or 3 marginal flowers, fertile, bearing pistils but no stamens; 1 to 6 disc flowers, perfect but sterile.
Flower color
Yellow
Flower shape
Daisy or dandelion-like
Tubular
No
First bloom month
August
Last bloom month
November
Flower clusters
Rounded
Leaf and Stem Characteristics
Leaves deciduous, alternate, long and narrow, attached directly to stem, grayish-green, 3/4 to 2-1/2 inches long, 1 or 3-parted, smooth or sparsely hairy.
Leaf type
Simple
Leaf color
Grayish-green
Leaf shape
Narrow
Leaf margin
Lobed
Leaves clasp
Yes
Leaf hairs
Leaves & stems
Spines
No
Fruit and Seed Characteristics
Small, dry, fruit with single chamber and seed, oblong, less than 1/16 inch long, obscurely nerved, smooth.
Fruit type
Achene
Fruit color
Light brown, yellowish
Single seed attached to the ovary wall at a single point, as in a sunflower.