alpine sagebrush, Artemisia rothrockii (White Mountains form), Nevada, White Mountains, Middle Creek, Fishlake Valley drainage, elevation 3187 m (10455 ft).
This highest-elevation sagebrush of the White Mountains has previously been confused with low sagebrush (Artemisia arbuscula), a species found mainly farther north and east, from which it differs in having larger heads, persistently white-felty stems, and spreading habit with stems often rooting from the lower nodes.
More recently the White Mountains plants have been considered to be a local whitish-hairy form of Artemisia rothrockii, which is otherwise found in the Sierra Nevada and the mountains of southern California, and extends also into the Sweetwater Mountains.
After comparing descriptions and images of "typical" Artemisia rothrockii, however, I am becoming convinced that the White Mountains plants represent an unnamed species, apparently endemic to the range. Besides the lower growth form and dense grayish-white pubescence, it seem to differ from A. rothrockii in having shorter and broader leaves, and flowering stems mostly racemose and unbranched.
Finding the very same plants isolated here in bristlecone-limber pine forest at the Nevada end of the White Mountains, well separated from related species, helps to solidify this opinion.
Also visible in this image are cones of ancient bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) and limber pine (Pinus flexilis).
Uploaded from my Flickr site: https://www.flickr.com/photos/127605180@N04/
pygmy rockjasmine, Androsace septentrionalis, White Mountains, Inyo National Forest, elevation 3670 m (12035 ft).
Uploaded from my Flickr site: https://www.flickr.com/photos/127605180@N04/
California, White Mountains, Cottonwood Basin, Poison Creek, Fishlake Valley drainage, elevation 3043 m (9985 ft).
This observation refers to the tall grasses in foreground and background, behind Monardella odoratissima glauca observation https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9844526
Uploaded from my Flickr site: https://www.flickr.com/photos/127605180@N04/
Activity
wintercress, Barbarea orthoceras, California, White Mountains, Crooked Creek, Deep Springs Valley watershed, elevation 3088 m (10130 ft).
hoary aster, Dieteria canescens var. canescens, Crooked Creek, White Mountains, Inyo National Forest, elevation 3090 m (10140 ft).
Also visible is summer snow (Leptosiphon nuttallii subsp. pubescens).
Uploaded from my Flickr site: https://www.flickr.com/photos/127605180@N04/
tiny mousetails, Myosurus minimus, California, White Mountains, Campito Meadow, Fishlake Valley watershed, elevation 3298 m (10820 ft).