Sagebrush (Artemisia)

Common Names: Big Sagebrush, Blue sagebrush, Chamiso hendiondo (Spanish for ‘waist high gray bushes that stink’), Common sagebrush

Latin Name: Artemisia tridentate Nutt. (art-em ‘miz ee uh trye den ‘tay ta)

Artemisia – said to be named for Artemisia (Diana to the Greeks), the Roman goddess of
chastity, hunting, and the moon; also a botanist and a medical researcher who discovered
several herbs.

Tridentate – three-toothed, referring to the leaves

Navajo name: Ts’ah, the sagebrush

If not the most common, big sagebrush is certainly more conspicuous than the several other species of sagebrush growing in the Four Corners region. Vast stands of pale gray-turquoise announce the presence of this shrub. Because big sagebrush usually grows in deep, non-saline soils suitable for farming, today in many places these stands are being sectioned into agricultural land.
Even from a distance big sagebrush can be recognized by its smoky color and uniform spacing of plants. Up close its strong turpentine fragrance, especially after a rainstorm, is a dead giveaway.

Description and distribution: Big sagebrush, an evergreen, rounded, fairly compact shrub with gray-green foliage and very small yellow flower heads in long clusters, grows to a height of 2 to 5 or more feet and is aromatic. It is a dry looking shrub with long, soft bark that hangs in shreds. The leaves are about an inch long and wedge shaped, with three teeth at the end. Flowers are tiny and non-descript, flowering in late August to early October. The flowers are a silvery yellow in color, with most plants blooming only in wet years.
Extensive stands of big sagebrush and fourwing saltbush (Atriplex canescens) occupy many areas between 6,500 to 7000 feet within the range of the big sagebrush from about 4900 feet up to about 7500 feet. Black greasewood (Sarcobatus vermiculatus) and fourwing saltbush; Colorado pinyon (Pinus edulis) and Utah juniper Juniperus osteosperma); ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa), Colorado pinyon (Pinus edulis) and Gambrel oak (Quercus gambelii) are other communities in which big sagebrush is a prominent member, especially on medium textured soils.

History: Before the present Ute, Navajo, Apache, and Hopi tribes occupied these lands, the Fremont people who lived north of Four Corners had developed an industry where much of everything that was woven or crafted from plant material was of big sagebrush. Ancestral Puebloans also used bark and other parts of the plant. On the Colorado Plateau and southward, sagebrush was one of the principal shrub fuels during Archaic, Ancestral Puebloan, and early historical times.
Sagebrush flowers, seeds, and leaves have been detected incoprolites from many Ancestral Puebloan sites, including Mesa Verde, and in enough quantity to suggest all were minor components of prehistoric diets and not just taken for medicinal purposes. Indeed sagebrush leaves are a good source or iron and vitamin C and in later years were eaten by the Southern Paiute during times of shortage.

Uses: In recent times plant parts have been collected for medicinal and ceremonial purposes. Humans have used the plant primarily as firewood—the volatile oils responsible for its pungent aroma are so flammable that they can cause even green plants to burn

Hopi Uses:
The leaves are used to combat digestive problems, headaches, and colds and as a general stimulant by the Hopi, who regard big sagebrush as being more potent than related species of Artemisia that grow on their reservation.

Navajo uses:
Medicinal: Artemisia tridentata is one of the life medicines and is highly revered by them. . Mixed with another species of sagebrush, it is said to cure headaches by odor alone. When the plant is boiled, it is said to be good for childbirth ( for the pain of child delivery), indigestion, and constipation; a tea of the stems and leaves is said to sure colds and fevers. The tea is drunk before long hikes or athletic contests to “rid the body of undesirable things.” A poultice made from pounded leaves is said to be good for colds, swellings, and tuberculosis or as a liniment for corns. The same medicine is used on animal sores.
Ceremonial: In Navajo legend, Coyote gave this tobacco to the Water Monster to calm her after he had stolen her baby. It is used in the Eagle Way, Water Way, Mountaintop Way, and Night Way. Medicine Men use sagebrush as the hearth of the ceremonial firedrill. It is also a sweat bath medicine.
Other uses: Navajo weavers boil the leaves and twigs to produce various shades of yellow and gold wool dyes.

Ute uses:
Ethnographer Anne Smith recorded the Ute’s many uses of these plants. She wrote of sacks of woven sagebrush bark lined with dry grass filled with food and placed in storage caches.
Wicks, or ‘slow matches,’ made of twisted sagebrush bark one to three inches in diameter and about a yard long, were carried when traveling.
“Women wore skirts of twined sagebrush bark, and both men and women in winter wore a poncho type of shirt of the same material….Leggings were also made of twined sagebrush bark or the legs were wrapped with sagebrush bark to protect them from the cold. Sagebrush bark was used for sandals in lieu of anything better…or placed inside sandals made from muskrat or beaver hides.” (Smith, 1974)

Collecting: Gather the leafing branches in late summer or early fall, preferably in wet years and from larger, healthier plants. Although Sagebrush survives in the most difficult circumstances, essential oils are much higher and the herb much stronger in favored places and times.

Cultivating: Spring-transplanted young seedlings dug in the wild are the easiest way to bring Sagebrush into the garden. Make sure you bring a substantial ball of dirt packed around the roots, so you can inoculate the planting hole with the proper microbes from the original soil. Sagebrush might seem tough and indomitable, but it is dependent upon its soil flora for root health. The seeds stay viable for years, but it is often hard to germinate intentionally.

Forage value: Even more nutritious than alfalfa, this shrub consists of 16 percent proteins, 15 percent fats, and 47 percent carbohydrates.
Grazing: Of the three subspecies of big sagebrush, big sagebrush is the most palatable. Preference ranges from poor to fair for cattle and horses and fair to good for sheep. Overgrazing by domestic livestock allows big sagebrush to increase.
Wildlife: big sagebrush is commonly eaten by elk and mule deer. It also makes up 76% of pronghorn diets in the spring. Sagebrush is a valuable forage plant for wildlife, particularly during the winter. It is browsed by deer, moose, elk, antelope, and bighorn sheep, especially in late winter and spring. Ground squirrel burrows increase the amount of spring recharge of soil moisture, which enhances productivity of big sagebrush.
Small mammals and birds seek this species for cover more than other species growing in association with it. Sage grouse choose big sagebrush for cover 71% of the time when nesting. Offers cover for birds and is a butterfly magnet when flowering.
Sage grouse also feed heavily sagebrush, which also provides nesting sites for a variety of songbirds.

Warnings:
A body of evidence indicates that sagebrush has poisonous properties that can cause birth defects in animals but can be effective as an antihelminthic. The ancients probably knew how much could be ingested for food with no aftereffects and to what degree it could be used to kill intestinal worms without killing the patient.
Do not use internally or for any length of time externally during pregnancy.
Drinking copious amounts of sage tea can induce gagging.

Disclaimer: Nothing herein written is to imply diagnosis or recommendation for treatment.It is presented for historical interest only

References:

Mayes, Vernon and Lacy, Barbara Bayless, Nanise’: a Navajo Herbal, Navajo Community College Press, Tsaile, Arizona 1989….106-107

Dunmire, William w., and Tierney, Gail D., Wild Plants and Native Peoples of the Four Corners, Museum of New Mexico Press, Santa Fe, NM, 1997……191-193

Moore, Michael, Medicinal Plants of the Mountain West, Museum of New Mexico Press, Santa Fe, NM, 2003……265-267