[1] It is native to the Snake River Plain and surrounding areas in the northwestern United States, occurring in southern Idaho, eastern Oregon, and northern Nevada.

[2][3] This small aromatic shrub grows up to 15 or 20 centimeters tall with several grayish stems.

[1][4][5] Artemisia papposa grows on sagebrush steppe, and in meadows, alkali flats, and sagebrush-juniper associations.

It grows alongside plants such as thymeleaf and mat buckwheats (Eriogonum thymoides and E. caespitosum, respectively), lava aster (Ionactis alpina), whip pussytoes (Antennaria flagellaris), onespike danthonia (Danthonia unispicata), western needlegrass (Achnatherum occidentale ssp.

occidentale), barestem biscuitroot (Lomatium nudicaule), and Sandberg bluegrass (Poa secunda).