White sage

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More names for this plant

Dakota: Peżiḣota 

The Dakota and Anishinaabe were among the earliest people to name Minnesota’s plants and animals, as well as to understand them in relation to Minnesota’s climate and seasons. Those original names are still in use, and several are included on the Season Watch website. However, complete translations were not available.

Latin (or scientific name): Artemisia ludoviciana

The scientific community has a convention of assigning agreed-upon Latin names to every kind of organism. Using scientific names helps people communicate confidently about the same organism and organize lifeforms based on how closely related they are.

More common names: Cudweed sagewort, gray sagewort, Louisiana sagewort, Louisiana wormwood, mugwort wormwood, prairie sage, sage, sagebrush, silver wormwood, western mugwort, white sagebrush

Page contents

About white sage

Visual guide to phenology

Graphs and historical data

More resources

A grassland scene with white sage. It has pale silver green fuzzy leaves that contrast with the colors and textures of surrounding vegetation.
White sage in a grassland setting.
August 27, 2022, Washington County, Minnesota
Photo © Nate Martineau, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
iNaturalist observation

About white sage

  • White sage is a native perennial plant that grows one to three feet tall. 
  • It produces aromatic, gray-green leaves that are lance shaped. 
  • Its clusters of pale yellow flowers will bloom most of the summer. 
  • White sage is mainly found in prairies throughout the southern and western areas of Minnesota. 
  • Fun fact: White sage is a plant with many common names, such as wormwood and mugwort. The fact that it has so many names is not surprising because people use it for a variety of purposes and it can be found across North America.

Visual guide to phenology

Watch for the appearance of leaves, flowers, and fruits. Take notice of when flowers open and fruits ripen.

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Note to observers

This page explains general clues to watch for when observing white sage phenology. However, this page does not explain how to identify this plant or collect data in a standardized way.

Dry remnants of last year's stem, flowers, and leaves. The leaves are pale gray and the seed heads are a pale golden color.
Dead leaves from last year's sage plants have a distinctively silver color and dusty appearance.
Sage leaves contrast against a background of mostly grasses. The leaves are long and narrow, pale green, and fuzzy.
A close-up photo showing sage's hairy leaves as they unfold at the tip of a stem.
Closed flower buds appear on this sage plant. They are small, less than a quarter inch across. They are pale green like the rest of the plant and tucked in near the stem.
Open flowers on this sage plant have small dark-yellow centers.
Close-up photo showing detail of the tiny sage flowers. They grow out of a fuzzy cup-shaped support that is silvery green, like the rest of the plant. The centers are dark yellow and red.
The flowers are spent, turning a golden brown. The leaves are dried and shriveled. The background is a grassland with a few sparse trees and a brilliant blue sky.
Pale green leaves on this sage are still fresh and living. They contrast with the golden-brown background of dried grasses.
The nearly white leaves of this sage plant contrast against the backdrop of dried grasses and other vegetation.

Graphs and historical data

Note: The Orientation Center provides a map, as well as information on reading graphs; interpreting summary statistics, who collected the data and how; and how to download datasets for independent exploration.


Washington County

Last flower

  • Earliest: May 21 (occurred in 1999)
  • Average: August 4
  • Latest: August 27 (occurred in 1997)
Scatterplot showing white sage phenology observations in Washington County, Minnesota

Download this dataset (.csv file)

More resources

White sage (Artemisia ludoviciana) in the Minnesota Biodiversity Atlas

White sage (Artemisia ludoviciana) in Nature's Notebook

White sage (Artemisia ludoviciana) fact sheet by US Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service

 

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Times of year

Co-author: Lynsey Nass, Minnesota Master Naturalist