The photo at right shows a leaf of threetip
sagebrush as seen at Wilson Creek, a BLM site several miles south of US Highway 2 in central Washington..........June 25, 2006. Note the long, thin leaflets and the dense covering
of whitish hairs.
Threetip sagebrush is a grayish, rounded shrub from 20-100 cm high. Its roots spread easily underground and Threetip sagebrush is readily capable of resprouting after exposure to fire. The stems are dark gray with shredding bark. The twigs are often broom-like clusters. The leaves are deciduous, up to 4 cm long, and deeply cleft into 3 thin, linear to linear-oblanceolate segments which may each in turn be cleft into 3 more segments. Each segment is about 1 mm wide and usually 6-20 times longer than wide. The flowering branches are annual and may have unsegmented leaves.
The inflorescence consists of numerous elongated, leafy panicles or racemes. The inflorescence ranges from 1-4 cm wide with the flower clusters often surpassed by their thin, leafy bracts. The involucre of the flower heads is 3-4 mm high, white haired below and smooth, shining or sticky above. The 4-8 flowers are discoid. Threetip sagebrush flowers from July through September.
Stiff sagebrush Artemisia rigida: Very similar to threetip sagebrush, but the inflorescence of the former is not much-branched. The flower heads are sessile in the axils. The deciduous leaves are deeply 3-5 cleft.
Threetip sagebrush may be found in dry plains and hillsides. It is often found on sites that would be moister or at higher elevations than big sagebrush, Artemisia tridentata.
Threetip sagebrush may be found to the east of the Cascade Mts. from southern British Columbia south through central and eastern Washington and central Oregon to southeastern Oregon and east to western montana and south to southern Wyoming, northern Colorado, northern Utah, and northeastern Nevada.
