Sagebrush wildflowers: From bloom to seed

These wildflowers support countless wildlife species, including some species only found in sagebrush ecosystems, such as the greater sage-grouse. (See “High sage-grouse value.”) Many forb species (including most featured here) are highly valued and used for food, medicine and ceremony by the many Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin. There are hundreds of forb species in sagebrush ecosystems, all with their own unique characteristics. The 31 species on this poster highlight common species potentially useful in restoration. These species also represent the variety of size, height, flowering timing and taxonomy (evolutionary relationships) found in typical sagebrush communities. Note: These species rarely, if ever, occur as closely together as shown in this poster.

Most of the common forbs in the sagebrush ecosystem bloom from early spring (March) through midsummer (July). Early-season forbs begin flowering when temperatures start to warm and soils are still moist from winter precipitation. Exact flowering dates vary by year, due to weather patterns, and by site, due to factors like elevation and aspect. This poster shows the progression of these wildflowers from bloom to seed through the growing season. The wildflowers appear in color-coded panels according to their peak flowering timing (early-season: blue, mid-season: pink, late-season: orange).

The poster also includes key management and restoration traits for each species: fire response, colonization rate and value to sage-grouse and pollinators. The small icons surrounding the flower photos at the top of the poster indicate different species traits. Traits are based on existing information. However, the amount of available information varies widely across species. See “Additional resources” for details like specific plant-pollinator relationships and responses to fires by severity or season.

Timing of flowering

Wildflower species are arranged by peak flowering times across the poster panels: early- (blue), mid- (pink) or late- (orange) season. The number in the panels can help you find the species on the top, or vice versa. The letters across the top of the flower photos (at left) depict months from February (F) to November (N). Months when the species flowers are highlighted in blue, with nonflowering months in gray. The blue flower symbol highlights peak flowering, or the month or months when a plant is most likely to have flowers.

Many species are shown in different phenological stages, such as leaf growth, flowering and fruiting, across panels. For example, wallflower phoenicaulis (Phoenicaulis cheiranthoides), species No. 3, is flowering in the early-season panel. It is fruiting, with long pods, in the mid-season panel. Try searching for the species across the seasons to see it at different phenological stages.

How did we determine peak bloom? Timing of flowering depends on the year, seasonal weather patterns and the environmental characteristics of the site, such as elevation. We estimated flowering months with species records from iNaturalist, a crowdsourced biodiversity database. We examined records across sagebrush ecosystems and adjoining regions.

Only a small fraction of iNaturalist forb observations include notes on plant phenology, like whether a plant is flowering. We supplemented these limited observations by scanning species’ photos for flowers in the months before or after observations with phenology notes. We excluded observations in hot deserts or high-elevation mountains because flowering in these areas is often much earlier or later than in low-elevation sagebrush sites.

The number of observations varied widely by species, from 83 for sicklepod rockcress to 7,269 for arrowleaf balsamroot (as of June 8, 2023, “verifiable” category; see “Additional resources”).

Fire response

Annuals usually survive fires as seed stored in the soil (often referred to as the seedbank). Some perennial species easily resprout following fire; others do not.

For perennial species, the location of growth points is critical to the potential for survival through post-fire resprouting. Species with growth points deep below the soil surface are more likely to survive or even benefit from fire. Species with growth points near or above the soil surface are more likely to be damaged or killed by fire.

The flame symbols describe a species’ response to fire. The green flame with a checkmark indicates a species that tends to survive fire, whereas the orange flame with an “X” indicates a species that is damaged by fire.

These estimates are for a typical fire in the sagebrush ecosystem, which is a moderate fire burning in late summer or early fall when most perennial forbs are dormant. “Survival” species may die in higher severity fires or fires that burn during the growing season.

Species by plant family

Scientific or Latin names (in italics) uniquely describe a species’ taxonomic classification in two parts. The first word is the genus, and the second word is the species description (technically, the specific epithet). Common names in English (body text on the poster) are not unique. One species can have multiple common names, and the same common name can be used for multiple species. Scientific names are more precise and related to taxonomy, but common names are often more widely known. The forb species in this poster are also known by many different names in Great Basin Indigenous languages. Often, there are unique Indigenous words for different phenological stages of the same species.

The nationwide database USDA PLANTS is the source for most scientific names on this poster, but scientific names can change with new research on taxonomic relationships. Updated names from the latest Flora of North America (in progress) are shown in brackets.

We also used the name Lomatium papilioniferum instead of Lomatium grayi. Recent research indicates that the name L. grayi was previously applied to multiple distinct species and L. papilioniferum is the most widespread of those in the Great Basin. Below are the species grouped by their plant family (the taxonomic group above genera).