It grows in arid and semi-arid conditions, throughout a range of cold desert, steppe, and mountain habitats in the Intermountain West of North America.

Sagebrush provides food and habitat for a variety of species, such as sage grouse, pronghorn antelope, grey vireo, pygmy rabbit, and mule deer.

Several major threats exist to sagebrush ecosystems, including human settlements, conversion to agricultural land, invasive plant species, and wildfires.

Big sagebrush is a coarse, many-branched, pale-grey shrub with yellow flowers and silvery-grey foliage, which is generally 0.5–3 metres (1+1⁄2–10 feet) tall.

[7] The leaves—attached to the branches at the axillary nodes—are wedge-shaped, 1–3 centimetres (1⁄2–1+1⁄4 inches) long and 0.3–1 cm broad, with the wider outer tips divided into three lobes (hence the scientific name tridentata).

[citation needed] Sagebrush essential oil contains approximately 40% l-camphor; 20% pinene; 7% cineole; 5% methacrolein; and 12% a-terpinene, d-camphor, and sesqiterpenoids.

[19] The range extends northward through British Columbia's southern interior, south into Baja California, and east into the western Great Plains of New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, and the Dakotas.

[20][21] Sagebrush provides food and habitat for a variety of animal species, such as sage grouse, pronghorn, gray vireo, pygmy rabbit, and mule deer.

Besides providing shade and shelter from the wind, the long taproot of sagebrush draws water up from deep in the soil, some of which becomes available to these surrounding shallow-rooted plants.

[29] Several major threats exist to sage brush ecosystems, including human settlements, conversion to agricultural land, invasive plant species, wildfires, and climate change.

Since its accidental introduction in the 1890s,[33] cheatgrass has radically altered the native shrub ecosystem by replacing indigenous vegetation,[34] and by creating a fire cycle that is too frequent to allow sagebrush to re-establish itself.

[37] This species is host to the following insect induced galls: external link to gallformers The Cahuilla used to gather large quantities of sagebrush seed and grind it to make flour.