Use . --The forage value of fringed sagebrush varies considerably with location and 

 season. Its value as browse is highest in late fall, winter, and early spring on west- 

 ern ranges where it is eaten readily by big game and livestock (USDA Forest Service 

 1937). It is also important food for sage grouse (Wallestad and others 1975). In other 

 areas, such as the grasslands of the Northwest and Great Plains, fringed sagebrush may 

 be less palatable and occasionally invades deteriorated grasslands. However, on the 

 Great Plains, fringed sagebrush is an important winter antelope food, and is used to a 

 lesser extent the year round (E- F- Schlatter, letter 12/1/77). 



This species has strong reproductive qualities and is a good pioneer shrub for 

 stabilizing disturbed areas. It has excellent reproduction from seed, and young plants 

 or segments of old plants are readily transplanted in early spring. Fringed sagebrush 

 has some value as a medicinal plant (Hall and Clements 1923). 



Artemisia longiioba (Osterhout) Beetle (alkali sagebrush) 



Alkali sagebrush is a low shrub up to 4.5 dm tall. It has lax, spreading stems 

 that frequently layer. The bark is dark brown to black on the older stems. The whole 

 plant has a dark gray-green appearance (Beetle 1960) . 



Leaves on the vegetative stems are broadly cuneate, up to 2 cm long, and are deeply 

 3-lobed. Leaves of the flowering stems are similar but smaller on the upper part of 

 the plants. Crushed foliage emits a pungent odor similar to that of camphor, in the 

 spring, and to hydraulic fluid in the fall (Brunner 1972). 



This species is readily distinguished from other low sagebrushes by its large 

 heads and early blooming period (Beetle 1959) (fig. 14). Its heads contain 6 to 11 

 disc flowers and are 3 to 5 mm broad as opposed to 3 mm or less for other low sages. 

 Alkali sagebrush blooms approximately a month earlier than other low sagebrushes. It 

 flowers during mid-June to mid-July and its seed ripens in August. Cleaned seed aver- 

 ages 5,850 per gram (2,655,000 per pound). 



Hybri-dization. --The chromosome number of A. longiioba is 2n = 18 (McArthur and 

 Pope, data on file at the Shrub Sciences Laboratory, Provo, Utah). Natural hybrids are 

 not knom, probably because this species flowers earlier than associated sagebrushes. 



Beetle (1960) points out that this species has in the past been confused with 

 A. carta because of its large heads; with A. tridentata because of its broadly cuneate, 

 3-lobed leaves; and with A. arbuscula because of its dwarf size. 



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