Species
+

Artemisia californica Less.

California sagebrush, California sagebrush, Húlvel, coastal sagebrush

Climate known 39 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Artemisia californica, also known as California sagebrush or cowboy cologne, is a species of shrub in the sunflower family that is endemic to western California and northwestern Baja California.

Text from Wikipedia, “Artemisia californica”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

Family
Asteraceae
Described by
Less.
Native to
California, Mexico Northwest
Wild records
1844 in range· 316 open

At a glance

Warmest month
27°C
Aug, mean day; nights 18 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
449mm/yr
6 wet months · peak Feb 98 mm (CHELSA)
Light
18–52DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a winter growing season, December to March in the northern hemisphere (December to March at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 449 mm a year, wettest February at 98 mm, driest July at 1 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 18 to 52 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 3.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Artemisia abrotanoides Nutt.; Artemisia californica var. californica; Artemisia fischeriana Besser; Artemisia fischeriana var. fischeriana; Artemisia fischeriana var. vegetior Besser and 3 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, December to March in the northern hemisphere (December to March at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (331 mm of 449 mm) falls in December to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 11.9 °C against a yearly mean of 15.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: June to September.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 449 mm a year, wettest February at 98 mm, driest July at 1 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

449 mm a year at the habitat, 331 mm of it December to March. Wettest month February at 98 mm, driest July at 1 mm; 3 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 300 mm to 731 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 18 to 52 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 18 to 52 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 53).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 3.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 3.2 °C, the absolute minimum -1.5 °C, 6 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 6.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells 4.1 °C to 10.2 °C), warmest day 27.0 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 3.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 60% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 16 °C in Dec to 27 °C in Aug; mean night from 7 °C in Jan to 18 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 449 mm of rain a year, most in Feb. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 677 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -1.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 36.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost36.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)-1.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 18–52RH 56–60 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 677 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C16 / 13–1817 / 14–1818 / 14–2020 / 15–2322 / 16–2524 / 18–2927 / 19–3227 / 20–3227 / 20–3023 / 19–2619 / 16–2116 / 13–18
Night °C7 / 4–108 / 5–119 / 6–1110 / 7–1212 / 10–1414 / 12–1517 / 13–1818 / 13–1917 / 13–1813 / 11–1610 / 7–137 / 4–10
Rain mm93 / 55–14598 / 66–14170 / 49–10731 / 21–489 / 5–202 / 2–51 / 0–32 / 1–46 / 4–922 / 15–3845 / 28–9070 / 44–140
DLI20 / 15–2225 / 21–2734 / 30–3643 / 40–4549 / 47–5052 / 50–5351 / 49–5247 / 45–4839 / 37–4130 / 27–3223 / 18–2418 / 14–20
RH %57 / 52–6359 / 54–6360 / 56–6459 / 54–6360 / 54–6659 / 52–6659 / 50–6858 / 50–6858 / 50–6757 / 50–6356 / 50–6256 / 51–61

Each figure is the median across the 677 grid cells holding the 1815 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1119:1243 (34.025, -117.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -1.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 3.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.9 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 677 distinct grid cells holding the 1815 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1119:1243 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 34.00_-118.125, lapse-corrected -171 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 224 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeCalifornia, Mexico Northwest
Kew's description“desert or dry shrubland”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker33.687, -117.728 · in the densest population, 1062 records (58% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1844 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 316 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 17 km away. 2 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 29 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1844 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Artemisia californicaArtemisia californicaArtemisia californicaArtemisia californicaArtemisia californicaArtemisia californicaArtemisia californicaArtemisia californica

Photographs: (c) redrovertracy, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) James C. Davis, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Jesse Rorabaugh, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0 (4); (c) Alexander Wentworth, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Artemisia californica, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Evolutionary and plastic responses to climate change in terrestrial plant populations
Steven J. Franks, Jennifer J. Weber, Sally N. Aitken (2013) · Evolutionary Applications
Evolution of trace gases and particles emitted by a chaparral fire in California
S. K. Akagi, J. S. Craven, Jonathan Taylor, G. R. McMeeking (2012) · Atmospheric chemistry and physics
The Role of Chemical Inhibition (Allelopathy) in Vegetational Composition
Cornelius H. Muller (1966) · Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club
Ecological and evolutionary impacts of changing climatic variability
Diego P. Vázquez, Ernesto Gianoli, William F. Morris, Francisco Bozinovic (2015) · Biological reviews/Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society
Laboratory measurements of trace gas emissions from biomass burning of fuel types from the southeastern and southwestern United States
I. R. Burling, R. J. Yokelson, David Griffith, Timothy J. Johnson (2010) · Atmospheric chemistry and physics
Volatile Growth Inhibitors Produced by Aromatic Shrubs
Cornelius H. Muller, Walter H. Müller, Bruce L. Haines (1964) · Science
Improving crop competitive ability using allelopathy — an example from rice
Maria Olofsdotter, Louise Bach Jensen, Brigitte Courtois (2002) · Plant Breeding
Molecular phylogeny of Subtribe Artemisiinae (Asteraceae), including Artemisia and its allied and segregate genera
Linda E. Watson, Paul L Bates, Timothy M. Evans, Matthew Unwin (2002) · BMC Evolutionary Biology
Habitat shifts of endangered species under altered climate conditions: importance of biotic interactions
Kristine L. Preston, John T. Rotenberry, Richard A. Redak, Michael F. Allen (2008) · Global Change Biology
Plant fitness in a rapidly changing world
Jill T. Anderson (2015) · New Phytologist

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Artemisia 5 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 34 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.