California sagebrush

Artemisia californica, California sagebrush, is an aromatic, evergreen shrub of the Asteraceae endemic to California and northern Baja California, where it dominates much of the coastal sage scrub plant community. It typically grows 0.5-2.5 m tall and wide, with slender, much-branched, gray-green stems clothed in finely dissected, thread-like leaves 2-10 cm long whose narrow lobes give the foliage a soft, lacy appearance. The whole plant is intensely fragrant when bruised, releasing characteristic monoterpene-rich essential oils. Small, nodding, yellowish-green disk flowers are borne in narrow, leafy panicles from late summer through autumn, each capitulum 3-5 mm across and lacking ray florets. Achenes are minute and glabrous. The species is drought-deciduous, shedding much of its foliage during the dry summer, and resprouts vigorously from a woody base after fire.