Artemisia arbuscula
Artemisia globularia
black sagebrush, dwarf sagebrush, little sagebrush, low sagebrush
purple wormwood
gray-green to brown, glabrate (diffusely branched from bases, brittle).
1–5, erect, whitish gray, densely tomentose.
(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).
mostly basal (cauline 1–4), greenish to whitish green;
blades (basal) 1–4.5 × 0.6–1.5 cm, 1–2-ternately to palmately lobed (flowering-stem blades 3-lobed), faces sparsely hairy.
campanulate or globose-ovoid, (1.5–)2–4(–5) × 1.5–4.5 mm.
campanulate or hemispheric, 3.5–6 × 6–11 mm.
4–6(–10);
corollas 1.5–2 mm, glabrous.
pistillate 9–10;
bisexual 20–30;
corollas yellow or reddish black, 2–3 mm, sometimes glandular.
(margins green) ovate (outer) to oblong, pubescent or tomentose.
lanceolate (margins brown), pilose.
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).
(2–20, peduncles 0 or to 25 mm) in subcapitate to capitate arrays 2–3 × 2–3 cm.
(light brown) 0.7–0.8 mm, resinous.
oblong, 1.5–2.5 mm, (apices flattened) glabrous.
Artemisia arbuscula
Artemisia globularia
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.)
Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora).
(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 |
1. Corollas reddish black; cypselae ca. 2.5 mm, margins with relatively narrow ribs | subsp. globularia |
1. Corollas yellow; cypselae 1.5–2 mm, margins with relatively broad ribs | subsp. lutea |
- Local floras:
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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