Sage brush8/22/2023 ![]() In the types of fires these sagebrushes are adapted for, the aboveground portion of the plant is destroyed, but the underground root system and rhizomes remain alive, cool enough to survive the burning. When the sagebrush burns, it burns at a lower temperature, making a fire that doesn’t spread so easily in the out-of-control-for-weeks scenarios we’ve been seeing in recent decades. To the untrained eye they may appear sickly or dead, much like a deciduous tree may look dead in the winter. It is a perennial, and instead of dying in the summer, it goes dormant. Sagebrush, on the other hand, is a perennial and is adapted to brushfires. The brush that builds up and fuels these fires is made up of an unnaturally large amount of annuals, the Russian thistle, black mustard and others that complete their lifecycles by summer, dying off completely in summer, leaving behind dry, dead brush that burns very easily and very hot. Our brushfire’s have been intensifying in recent decades due to causes like human encroachment on forests, global warming, intense drought and invasive species such as the Russian thistle and black mustard. Sagebrush is also not responsible for California’s brushfire problems. First of all, do not confuse it with Russian thistle (Kali tragus), which is an invasive plant that makes up most of our tumbleweed. ![]() Growing up there were a few things I was taught about California’s native sagebrush that were just wrong.
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