Data provided by the participants of the Consortium of California Herbaria

View additional distribution information on the Jepson eflora

Sphaeromeria cana (recently proposed name Artemisia albicans) is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common name gray chickensage. It is native to the western United States, where it is known from the Sierra Nevada, the adjacent desert ranges of eastern California and Nevada, and Steens Mountain of Oregon. It grows in dry, rocky mountain habitat, such as cracks and crevices, including the talus above the tree line. This is an aromatic subshrub with numerous erect branches growing up to 30 to 60 centimeters tall. It is gray-green in color and coated with woolly fibers. The leaves are linear or lance-shaped, the lower ones divided into lobes. The inflorescence is generally a cluster of flower heads lined with woolly phyllaries and containing yellow disc florets. There are no ray florets. The fruit is a ribbed achene about 2 millimeters long.

Plant type

Perennial herb

Size

1 - 2 ft Tall

Calscape icon
Color

Yellow

Plant communities

Alpine Fell-Fields, Bristlecone Pine Forest, Subalpine Forest

Bees
Butterflies

Pollinators supported

0 confirmed and 15 likely

  • Likely

  • Confirmed

Hunt's Bumble Bee

Bombus huntii

Black-tailed Bumble Bee

Bombus melanopygus

Vancouver Bumble Bee

Bombus vancouverensis

Yellow-faced Bumble Bee

Bombus vosnesenskii