Artemisia borealis
Artemisia ludoviciana
boreal wormwood, field sagewort
gray sagewort, prairie sage, silver sage, silver wormwood, western mugwort, western wormwood, white sage, white sagebrush, white wormwood
(1–)2–5, gray-green, tomentose.
relatively few to relatively numerous, erect, gray-green, simple or widely branched, hairy.
persistent, basal rosettes persistent, gray-green to white;
blades ovate, 2–4 × 0.5–1 cm, 2–3-pinnately or -ternately lobed, lobes linear to narrowly oblong, apices acute, faces moderately to densely sericeous.
cauline, uniformly gray-green, green, or white, or bicolor (white and green);
blades linear to broadly elliptic, 1.5–11 × 0.5–4 cm, entire or lobed to relatively deeply pinnatifid, faces hairy.
hemispheric, 3–4 × 3.5–4 mm.
campanulate or turbinate, (1–)2–4(–5) × 2–5(–8) mm.
pistillate 8–10; functionally staminate 15–30;
corollas (or lobes) yellow-orange or deep red, 2.2–3.5.
pistillate 5–12;
bisexual 6–45;
corollas yellow, sometimes red-tinged, 1.5–2.8 mm, glabrous.
(obscurely scarious) densely tomentose-villous.
(gray-green), lanceolate to ovate or obovate (margins narrowly hyaline), densely tomentose.
(proximal sessile, distal pedunculate) in (leafy) spiciform arrays 4–9(–12) × (0.5–)1–5 cm.
(erect to nodding, peduncles 0 or 2–5 mm) in congested to open (widely branched) arrays.
oblong-lanceoloid, somewhat compressed, 0.4–1 mm, faintly nerved, glabrous.
ellipsoid ca. 0.5 mm, (obscurely nerved) glabrous.
= 18, 36, 54.
Artemisia borealis
Artemisia ludoviciana
Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Subspecies ca. 7 (6 in the flora).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Herbage villoso-tomentose, glabrate, or glabrous; corollas (at least lobes) usually yellow-orange, 2.2–3 mm; mountains, w North America | subsp. borealis |
1. Herbage white-hoary; corollas (at least lobes) deep red, 3–3.5 mm; w arctic North America | subsp. richardsoniana |
1. Leaves usually relatively deeply lobed (1/3+ widths, nearly to midrib, proximal leaves sometimes entire); involucres 3–8 mm diam.; mountain meadows and slopes | → 2 |
1. Leaves entire or relatively shallowly lobed (lobes to 1/3 widths); involucres 2–3(–4) mm diam.; desert valleys and mountains | → 3 |
2. Involucres 4–5 × 4–8 mm | subsp. candicans |
2. Involucres 3–4 × 3–5 mm | subsp. incompta |
3. Heads in paniculiform arrays (4–)8–30 cm diam.; leaves mostly 1.5–2 cm | subsp. albula |
3. Heads in paniculiform or racemiform arrays 1–6 cm diam.; leaves 1.5–11 cm | → 4 |
4. Leaf margins plane | subsp. ludoviciana |
4. Leaf margins revolute | → 5 |
5. Leaves bicolor (gray-green and bright green), margins mostly entire, abaxial faces glabrous | subsp. redolens |
5. Leaves gray-green, margins usually lobed, abaxial faces hairy | subsp. mexicana |
- Local floras:
BC, 
CA, 
OR, 
WA - Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos,
Flora NW, 
Go Botany, 
IL Wildflowers, 
KS Wildflowers, 
LA Plants, 
MD Biodiversity, 
MI Flora, 
MN Wildflowers, 
MO Plants, 
PNW Herbaria, 
SW CO Wildflowers, Turner Photog. 
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist (observations)
USDA Plants Database- LBJ Wildflower Center
- SEINet
- Plants of the World Online
- Encyclopedia of Life
- Wikipedia
- Google Image Search
