Pasture sage
Artemisia frigida
Also called Fringed sage, Woman sage
We do not have a Blackfoot or Cree name for this one yet. Tell us the name and we will add it, with your word on where it comes from.
The low silver cushion sage of dry, hard, overgrazed prairie. Softer and finer than prairie sage, and used alongside it.
Commonly shared knowledge. Learn it, gather it, and follow the protocol.
What it is confused with
Easily confusedPrairie sage Artemisia ludoviciana
Prairie sage is taller with narrow undivided leaves. Pasture sage is low and its leaves are cut into fine threads. Both are used.
How to know it
- Habit
- A low silvery mat or cushion, ankle high, woody at the base.
- Leaves
- Very finely divided into thread-like segments, silky, silver-grey.
- Smell
- Clean and strongly sage when rubbed.
- Where
- Dry, thin, hard-grazed ground where taller plants have given up.
The country it grows in
- Open prairie
- Coulee slopes
- Sandy and gravelly ground
- Roadsides and disturbed ground
Landscape types only. We do not publish where a patch is, and we are not going to.
When it is ready
- Leaves June to September
Right now it is July. Something on this plant is in season.
What it is used for
- Smudge and ceremony
- Teaching with youth
Used as a smudge and in ceremony alongside prairie sage. Which sage is used for what differs between nations and between families, and that is not ours to set out.
How it is prepared
- Dried and stored
Dried in small bundles out of the sun.
- Smudge
A pinch of dried leaf, lit and blown out.
Protocol
Ask the plant first, and offer something before you take anything. Tobacco is what is most often offered here. Say who you are, and say what the medicine is for.
Harvest the mature plants and leave the small ones to grow. Never take the first plant you find, and never take all of them.
Take only what you will actually use. Medicine picked and then left to rot in a bag was taken for nothing.
Leave the ground as you found it. Put back any dirt you dug up, and return any plant material you do not use to the earth.
Do not gather beside roads, highways or trails, where the plants take up whatever has been sprayed or spilled there.
If you are not certain what a plant is, do not pick it and do not put it in your mouth. Ask someone. Being wrong in the field is how people get hurt.
Clip the tops. Do not pull up the woody base, which is what holds thin ground together.