Leaves on the vegetative stems are green, nearly glabrous, viscidulous, 2 to 4 mm 

 wide, 2 to 8 mm long and are pinnatified with 3 to 11 lobes, or sometimes may be only 

 toothed. Leaves on the flowering branches are usually reduced and may be entire. 



Heads with 3 to 5 disc flowers are arranged into spikelike inflorescence. Ray 

 flowers are lacking. Twelve to 18 greenish-yellow bracts subtend each head. Achenes 

 are glabrous. Flowers bloom in August and September, and seed matures in October. 

 Seeds are large for Artemisia. Cleaned seed average 970 per gram (440,000 per pound). 



Hybridization. --'^oth. diploid (2n = 18) and tetraploid (2n = 36) forms of A. pygmaea 

 are knovvn (Ward 1953; McArthur and Pope, data on file at the Shrub Sciences Laboratory, 

 Prove, Utah). 



Distribution and habitat . --Pigmy sagebrush is limited to calcareous soils in desert 

 areas over approximately 5,000 hectares (21 square miles) from eastern Utah to western 

 Nevada, and northern Arizona (Ward 1953; Beetle 1960; McArthur and Plummer 1978) (fig. 

 19). In Nevada, this species is often associated with the halophytic C. nauseosus ssp. 

 consimilis . Some fairly large stands occur with black sagebrush in Utah. Its type 

 locality is Fish Creek, near Eureka, Nevada. 



Use . --Because of its scarcity and small size, this species has little value as 

 browse. It does, however, provide important ground cover in the dry, alkaline areas 

 where little else will grow. It establishes readily by transplanting divided plants. 

 Although it spreads well from naturally dispersed seed, artificial planting of seed 

 has not been successful. 



Artemisia rigida (Nutt.) Gray (stiff or scabland sagebrush) 



Stiff sagebrush is a low, pungently aromatic shrub with thick, rigid, somewhat 

 brittle branches up to 4 dm high (fig. 20). It is not known to rootsprout or layer. 

 The deciduous, si Ivery-canescent , spatulate leaves are mostly 1 to 4 cm long ar 1 deeply 

 divided into 3 to 5 narrowly linear lobes. Occasionally some leaves are linear and 

 entire (fig. 21) . 



Inflorescence is a leafy spike with heads sessile or in small clusters in the 

 axils of their subtending leaves, which generally are all longer than the heads (fig. 

 22a). The campanulate involucre is 4 to 5 mm long with numerous, canescent bracts. 

 Each head consists of 5 to 16 perfect disc flowers. Flowering occurs during September 

 and October; seeds ripen in November. Seeds number 1,210 per gram (550,000 per pound). 



20 



