Desert Sage is one of the most widespread shrubs in western North America.  It is “a perennial reproducing from seed.  Plants average less than  3 feet in height; but in deep soils this woody species reaches heights over 10 feet.  It is considered an evergreen even though leaves have a grayer color in winter months.  Leaves are undivided, wedge-shaped with 3 blunt lobes.  Leaves contain essential oils causing them to have a distinct sage odor when they are crushed.  They are silvery blue because of the dense gray hairs found on both sides.  Yellow flowers appear in late August, forming panicles.  Seed formation and shed takes place from October to December.  Seed has a one-year viability once they are shed.  Older plants have trunks over 3 inches in diameter, which are covered with brown stringy bark.” (9)  The roots are deep and widely branching.

“While approximately twenty-five species of sage have been identified in the northwest, big sage (Artemisia tridentata) is the most widespread and useful.  ... Big sage is an extremely tenacious and prolific three-toothed shrub that can reach gigantic proportions, occasionally growing fifteen feet in height, but more commonly two to four feet.  In marginal habitats it may mature and reproduce at less than one foot tall.  The amount of available water is the main factor determining sagebrush size, and the largest plants will be found in non-alkaline soil, along watercourses, or where the water table is deceptively close to the arid land surface. (10)

Desert sage is located in North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Washington, Oregon, Nevada and California.  Desert sage populations may also be found in southern British Columbia, and northern Baja Mexico.