Artemisia arbuscula
Artemisia furcata
black sagebrush, dwarf sagebrush, little sagebrush, low sagebrush
fork wormwood, three-fork mugwort, three-fork wormwood
gray-green to brown, glabrate (diffusely branched from bases, brittle).
(flowering) 1–5, erect, light brown, simple, strigillose or glabrate.
(vegetative stems) persistent, gray-green;
blades broadly to narrowly cuneate, 3–10 × 2–5 mm, lobed (lobes 3, oblong-linear, to 1/3 blade lengths, mostly 1–3 mm wide, flat, obtuse, laterals sometimes 2–3-fid; leaves on flowering stems deciduous, blades narrowly cuneate, deeply 3-lobed), faces densely hairy (not sticky resinous).
basal (in rosettes) and cauline, gray-green;
blades oval, 2–10(–12) cm (basal) or 1–1.5 × 0.4–0.6 cm (cauline), 1–3-palmately lobed, faces sparsely to densely strigillose.
campanulate or globose-ovoid, (1.5–)2–4(–5) × 1.5–4.5 mm.
broadly campanulate, 3–6 × 4.5–8 mm.
4–6(–10);
corollas 1.5–2 mm, glabrous.
pistillate 6–7;
bisexual 15–26;
corollas mostly yellow, sometimes red-tinged, 1–2 mm, glabrous or glabrate.
(margins green) ovate (outer) to oblong, pubescent or tomentose.
(greenish, color often obscured by indument) ovate or lanceolate (margins dark brown), sparsely to densely tomentose.
usually borne singly, rarely (1–4, erect, mostly sessile, in pedunculate clusters) in spiciform or paniculiform arrays 2–9 × 0.5–2 cm (branches slender).
(erect or spreading, some nodding, peduncles 0 or to 30 mm) in racemiform or spiciform arrays 1–6 × 1–2 cm.
(light brown) 0.7–0.8 mm, resinous.
oblong (ribbed), 1–1.5 mm, glabrous.
= 18, 36, 72, 90.
Artemisia arbuscula
Artemisia furcata
Subspecies 3 (3 in the flora).
Artemisia arbuscula is one of the more perplexing species in the Tridentatae complex. Anatomic and morphologic characteristics suggest multiple hybrid origins for the subspecies. Deciduous leaves of flowering stems in plants that otherwise have persistent leaves suggest a hybrid origin involving plants of the A. tridentata and A. cana lineages. In most instances, populations of A. arbuscula appear to be reproductively stable. The disposition of Artemisia arbuscula subsp. longicaulis Winward & McArthur (with 2n = 54) has not been determined.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Artemisia furcata extends from the islands of the Bering Sea into southern and interior Alaska, parts of Canada (disjunct in British Columbia and the northernmost Rocky Mountains of Alberta), and on Mt. Rainier in Washington. The array of names applied to A. furcata shows the taxonomic confusion arising from a myriad of morphologic variants that may indicate introgression with other species.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Involucres 2–4.5 mm diam.; usually in rocky soils; flowering mid–late summer | subsp. arbuscula |
1. Involucres 1.5–2.5 mm diam.; clays or stony soils; flowering early spring–late summer | → 2 |
2. Leaves broadly cuneate (4–10 × 2–5 mm, often irregularly lobed, lobes rounded, middle lobes overlapping lateral lobes); usually in clay soils; flower- ing early spring | subsp. longiloba |
2. Leaves narrowly cuneate (5–10 × 3–6 mm, lobed, lobes 1/2+ blade lengths, laterals to 1 mm wide, of-ten acute); usually in stony soils; flowering mid–late summer | subsp. thermopola |
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CA, 
OR, 
WA - Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos,
Flora NW, 
PNW Herbaria 
WildflowerSearch
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USDA Plants Database- LBJ Wildflower Center
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BC
