Sagebrush in autumn

Sagebrush in autumn

Sep 25, 2024

This story closely follows information in Pocket Guide to Sagebrush(2017),
by Leila Shultz, Utah State University - Faculty emeritus.

Late-season light dawns in sagebrush country. | USFWS/Katie Theule

Sagebrush grows on over 160 million acres of western North America - about 145 million of which are in the U.S. Almost 67 million of U.S. sagebrush acres are BLM-managed public lands.

The BLM manages the largest share of sagebrush habitat in the U.S. | BLM/Heather Feeney

Though sagebrush is botanically related to the sunflower, its blossoms have neither bright petals nor oversized seeds. Late summer blooming remains muted, and the plant relies on the wind for pollination, rather than insects. This requires a massive amount of pollen!

There are hundreds of flower heads on a single stem and between two and ten florets per head. Each floret produces just a single seed, about 1 millimeter long. Altogether, a healthy, mature sagebrush plant can produce thousands of seeds.

Flowers are tiny but abundant. Their seeds disperse by passing through the digestive tracts of animals
that eat the seed heads or by the wind. | BLM/Heather Feeney

Amid the sagebrush, greater sage-grouse chicks hatched in spring have grown to nearly adult-size. Native grasses and flowering plants are drying out, losing their value as food and no longer able to support spiders and insects that nourish sage-grouse and other species in summer months. The birds now begin to rely exclusively on sagebrush leaves and seeds for food.

In all seasons, sagebrush provides safe cover for the grouse, as well as nutrition. Seeds consist
of about 20% protein. | USFWS/Tom Koerner

Sagebrush seeds and the plants' evergreen leaves will sustain the grouse through the long high country winter.

With a commitment to improving outcomes for greater sage-grouse, the BLM is updating the plans adopted in 2015 to manage sagebrush habitat on public lands. Monitoring data and new scientific information published since 2015 will help us determine what additional steps we should take to benefit sage-grouse and people across the West who also rely on a healthy sagebrush-steppe.