Fun Fact Friday: Tiny Sagebrush Seeds Use Winter to Their Advantage
By Wendy Velman, Botany Program Lead for BLM-MT/DK
Photos by Wendy Velman, BLM and Craig Miller, BLM
Did you know sagebrush is part of the Artemisia genus of the Asteraceae, or sunflower family? Imagine a large extended family of plants where each member is as connected and unique as your own family - that’s the Asteraceae family! Even though sagebrush comes from a large family, it stands out of the crowd thanks to special adaptations that help it flourish is North America’s sagebrush ecosystem. One of those is taking advantage of chilly winter months to help foster a new generation of sagebrush plants.
Sagebrush blooms in late summer or early fall, often flowering right before the first hard frost. The flowers rely on wind and freezing temperatures to prepare the seeds. Wind pollinates and disperses the seeds and freezing temperatures help sagebrush to set, or ripen, their seeds. The plant times its seed dispersal for early winter, preferably when there is some snow on the ground and more snow to come. This requires another special sagebrush trick.
Sagebrush is often one of the tallest plants in its habitat, ranging from less than one foot to over eight feet in height. As wind blows in sagebrush country, it moves snow and picks up the pollinated seeds. Sagebrush’s height changes the wind velocity and allows snow to drift around the plant. Seeds get deposited in these snow drifts, often near its mother plant.
Sagebrush continues to take full advantage of winter’s gifts after the seeds land in snow drifts. Snow provides the critical moisture for sagebrush seeds to germinate and establish themselves. Once germinated, the baby sagebrush start to grow long taproots. These help them reach deep soils that hold moisture to sustain them through the hot dry summers to come.
Sagebrush seeds are really small. Depending on the species it takes approximately 1.7-2.4 million seeds to make a pound! The small seeds make it easy for the wind to carry and deposit them in snowbanks. The small seed size also takes a lot less energy for the plant to produce that it would for an apple tree to make one apple. In sagebrush country, saving energy, planning for moisture, and pollinating with the wind make sagebrush one smartly adapted plant that uses winter to ensure its offspring survive to the next generation.
When you’re out in sagebrush country, check out the landscape. Do you spot snowdrifts around sagebrush plants? What do you observe about the sagebrush bushes? Can you identify its seeds? Can you identify how the snow, wind, and sagebrush work together to pollinate and disperse seeds? Keep exploring!
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