Silver Sagebrush

General Information

• Plants: Aromatic shrubs usually less than 3 feet tall. Leaves up to 3 inches long, linear to lance shaped, and covered with fine, silvery hair.
• Flowers: Numerous, small, rayless heads arranged in small, spike-like clusters forming narrow, leafy panicles.
• Fruits: Very small, smooth achenes without a pappus.
• Flowering Season: August to September.
• Habitat/Range: Plains, foothills, and the bottoms of draws, especially on clayey soils, from Saskatchewan to Nebraska and New Mexico, and west to British Columbia and California.¹

Blackfeet Ethnobotany^*

by Darnell and Smokey Rides At The Door

The Blackfeet name for silver sage is Aapa Ot Toyi Tsi. It translates to 'white rush.' It is one of the most aromatic sages on the prairie. The seeds of silver sage are used on occasion as a food source, raw or dried out, though the taste is bitter and pungent.

The Blackfeet, understanding the importance of fire in ecology and its cultural importance, historically conducted controlled burns much in the way agencies in the United States do today. Those burns aimed to control silver sage among many other prairie plants.²

From the Journals

by H. Wayne Phillips

Four specimens of silver sagebrush were collected on the Lewis and Clark Expedition and still exist in the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia.³ Lewis described the first specimen on a label as "No. 60 1804 October 1st another variety of wild sage growth of high and bottom prairies." On the second specimen’s label, his specimen number 55, he wrote, "October 2ed 1804 growth of the high Bluffs." The expedition collected the others in the same place as the October 2 specimen.

On April 14, 1805, while camped near the mouth of the Little Missouri River in present-day North Dakota, Lewis described several Artemisia species:

on these hills many aromatic herbs are seen; resembling in taste, smel and appearance, the sage, hyssop, wormwood, southernwood, and two other herbs which are strangers to me; the one resembling the camphor in taste and smell, rising to the hight of 2 or 3 feet; the other about the same size, has a long, narrow, smooth, soft leaf of an agreeabl smel and flavor; of this last the Antelope is very fond; they feed on it, and perfume the hair of their foreheads and necks with it by rubbing against it.

The last species he described is likely silver sagebrush, which was new to him.⁴

Additional Information: Silver sage is an excellent plant for providing shelter for native bees. Silver sagebrush has the greatest sprouting response to fires out of all the sage bushes in North America. After 4–6 years post-burn, the bushes generally exceed their prior size. Silver sage provides an important habitat for the greater sage grouse.⁵

^*While traditional medicine is still practiced in many cultures including the Blackfeet culture and has many uses, please do not consume any plant material without consultation of a health professional.