Fringed Sagebrush Fringed
sagebrush is a woody shrub with silvery leaves and
little yellow flowers. Sagebrush
has a strong odor after it rains that smells like
turpentine or camphor. Fringed
sagebrush is a low, mat-forming shrub. It gets to
be 4 to 16 inches (10-40 cm) in height and rarely
grows taller than 24 inches (60 cm). Soft stems
grow from a Fringed sagebrush has a unique root system. It adapts to the conditions that it finds itself living in. It grows deep taproots where the water level is low, and lots of surface roots when the water is easy to get at. The adaptable root systems allows fringed sagebrush to to survive drought periods which commonly occur in the Great Plains and the Mongolian steppe. The sagebrush is used for livestock because it is so high in protein. Many wildlife species like to eat it during spring, fall, and winter but not during the summer. Many bird species use the sagebrush Artemesia tridentata for making nests. Artemisia tridentata is also used for fuel in places where other burnable woody plants can't be grown. Fringed sagebrush can live in many places, but not in alkaline soil. It grows on dry open sites in the foothills, mountains, and plains from Mexico northward to Canada and Alaska, and into Eurasia. Fringed sagebrush grows especially in the high, cold plains of the United States, Canada, and Mongolia. This makes Sagebrush a steppe plant because it can grows in dry and cold climates. 2001
bibliography: "Artemisia frigida", http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/shrub/artfri/ "Eastern Mongolia Strictly Protected Area", http://www.un-mongolia.mn/wildher/dornod.htm, (2001).
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