Sagebrush scrub is a vegetation type (biome) of mid-to-high elevation Western United States deserts characterized by low-growing drought-resistant shrubs including the sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) and its associates.[1][2] It is the dominant vegetation type of the Great Basin Desert (Great Basin shrub steppe),[2] occurs along the margins of the Mojave Desert, including in the southern slopes of the Sierra Nevada and the Transverse Ranges, in California,[2] and occurs in the Colorado Plateau and in the Canyonlands, where it may be referred to as cool desert shrub.[3]
It often occurs adjacent to piñon-juniper woodland communities, between 4,000 and 7,000 feet elevation, where annual precipitation is 8"-15", much of it snow.[4]
It sometimes occurs in pure stands of sagebrush or with associates that vary from region to region.[2] Sagebrush scrub may occur as an understory of pinyon-juniper woodland.[2]