Big sagebrush
The gray-green shrub of Utah's open valleys and basins, and essential to sage grouse.
Big sagebrush grows in valleys, basins and mountain slopes from about 2,500 to 10,000 feet, most of all in dry, gravelly or rocky soil. It can be 1 to 16 feet tall. The gray-green leaves usually end in three lobes, and it grows two crops a year, dropping its spring leaves as fall leaves come on.
It flowers inconspicuously in August and September. Big sagebrush feeds and shelters many kinds of wildlife, is good winter forage for wildlife and sheep, and is essential food and cover for sage grouse.
Seeing it
Look at the leaf tips: most end in three small lobes, though not all.
More plants · Sagebrush and grassland
Grasses
Indian ricegrass
Utah's state grass, a drought-tolerant bunchgrass found on most of the state's rangeland.