Plant · P-1159

Antelope Bitterbrush

Purshia tridentata

Antelope Bitterbrush is a slow-growing desert shrub that western wildlife depend on for winter forage - cattle, pronghorn, deer and elk all browse it, and it stays nutritious through the cold months when little else offers anything. It fixes a small amount of nitrogen through a root partnership with a soil bacterium, and it spreads only by seed that rodents bury and forget rather than by roots, so a stand expands slowly across a landscape. It needs a real winter and sharp drainage - its seed will not sprout without weeks of cold, moist chilling, and wet or fine-textured ground brings on root disease. Because deer and livestock find it so palatable, taking more than half its yearly growth or grazing new plants too soon can browse a stand out of existence.