Artemisia bigelovii
Artemisia palmeri
Bigelow sage, Bigelow sagebrush, Bigelow sagewort, Bigelow's sage
Palmer sagewort, San Diego sagewort
silvery, canescent (bark gray-brown).
usually 1–15, erect, brown, simple (wandlike, brittle, bases woody), glabrous.
persistent, light gray-green;
blades narrowly cuneate, 0.5–3 × 0.2–0.5 cm, entire or 3(–5)-lobed (lobes 1.5–2 mm, less than 1/3 blade lengths, acute), faces silvery canescent.
cauline (petiolate), bicolor (gray-green and dark green);
blades broadly lanceolate, 3.5–12(–15) × 0.2–10 cm, relatively deeply and coarsely pinnately lobed (lobes 3–7+), faces canescent (abaxial) or glabrous or sparsely hairy (adaxial).
globose, 2–3 × 1.5–2.5 mm.
globose, 2.5–3.5 × 2–5 mm.
pistillate 0–2 (raylike, laminae to 1 mm);
bisexual 1–3;
corollas 1–1.5 mm (style branches of ray florets elongate, exsert, epapillate, tips acute; of disc florets, short, truncate, papillate).
pistillate 0;
bisexual 8–30;
corollas pale yellow, 1.5–2.2 mm, resinous-glandular (style branches exsert, truncate, erose).
(8–15) ovate, canescent or tomentose.
(pale green to stramineous) broadly ovate, glabrous or sparsely hairy (receptacles paleate).
(usually nodding) in arrays 6–25 × 1–4 cm (branches erect, somewhat curved).
(erect or nodding, peduncles relatively slender) in open, paniculiform arrays, 15–40 × 3–10 cm (widely branched).
(ellipsoid, 5-ribbed) 0.8–1 mm, glabrous.
(light brown, shiny) ellipsoid, 1–1.2 mm, (4-angled), glabrous or glandular.
= 18, 36, 72.
= 18.
Artemisia bigelovii
Artemisia palmeri
Artemisia bigelovii of the southwestern deserts is easily confused in the field with A. tridentata, even though it is well distinguished ecologically and morphologically. Systematic placement within subg. Tridentatae remains problematic. Presence of “ray” florets (though rare) and vestigial spines on the pollen (R. P. Wodehouse 1935) suggest a relationship with groups ancestral to Tridentatae. The species also has the unusual characteristic of lignified trichomes (L. M. Shultz 1986b). Further research may help to determine proper placement; its affinities may be with members of subg. Artemisia.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Of conservation concern.
Artemisia palmeri is known only from drainages near the coast, from northeast of San Diego to just south of Ensenada. Most of its habitat has been destroyed by urban development. It is of particular interest because of its paleate receptacles, an anomalous trait that confounds our understanding of its evolutionary relationship to other species of Artemisia.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
CA
SW CO Wildflowers
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
