About Artemisia spinescens Eaton
Artemisia spinescens Eaton is a squat shrub that grows into a rounded bush reaching a maximum height of 30 to 50 centimeters. Its tangled branches are woolly when new, and become thorny and rough when they age. The main stem is woody and corky. The strongly aromatic foliage consists of many small, fuzzy leaves divided into narrow, pointed segments. This species is deciduous; it drops its leaves and becomes dormant during the dry summer. The inflorescence is a raceme of small clusters of flower heads that grow from leaf axils. Each flower head holds several tiny, bell-shaped sterile disc florets and a small number of fertile ray florets. The fruit is a tiny hairy achene less than one millimeter long. Artemisia spinescens is native to the western United States. Its range extends from southern and eastern California and the Great Basin, north to Idaho and Montana, and east to western Colorado and northwestern New Mexico. It grows in scrub and other habitat types on clay and gravel-rich soils. It thrives on salty soils, where it grows alongside other salt-tolerant plants such as saltbushes (Atriplex sp.). It is adapted to very dry climates. This plant is considered good forage for wild and domestic grazing animals early in the growing season, when its foliage is new and soft. Later in the season, when the plant produces large amounts of bitter volatile oils, it becomes unpalatable.
