Artemisia borealis |
Artemisia tridentata |
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boreal wormwood, field sagewort |
big sagebrush, blue sagebrush, common sagebrush, mountain sagebrush, sagebrush |
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Habit | Perennials, (6–)8–20(–40) cm (cespitose), mildly aromatic; taprooted, caudices branched. | Shrubs, 40–200(–300) cm (herbage gray-haired), aromatic; not root-sprouting (trunks relatively thick). | ||||||||||||||||
Stems | (1–)2–5, gray-green, tomentose. |
gray-brown, glabrate (bark gray, exfoliating in strips). |
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Leaves | 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. |
persistent, gray-green; blades usually cuneate, (0.4–)0.5–3.5 × 0.1–0.7 cm, 3-lobed (lobes to 1/3 blade lengths, 1.5+ mm wide, rounded), faces densely hairy. |
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Involucres | hemispheric, 3–4 × 3.5–4 mm. |
lanceolate, (1–)1.5–4 × 1–3 mm. |
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Florets | pistillate 8–10; functionally staminate 15–30; corollas (or lobes) yellow-orange or deep red, 2.2–3.5. |
3–8; corollas 1.5–2.5 mm, glabrous. |
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Phyllaries | (obscurely scarious) densely tomentose-villous. |
oblanceolate to widely obovate, densely tomentose. |
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Heads | (proximal sessile, distal pedunculate) in (leafy) spiciform arrays 4–9(–12) × (0.5–)1–5 cm. |
(usually erect, on slender peduncles) in paniculiform arrays 5–30 × 1–6 cm. |
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Cypselae | oblong-lanceoloid, somewhat compressed, 0.4–1 mm, faintly nerved, glabrous. |
1–2 mm, hairy or glabrous, glandular. |
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Artemisia borealis |
Artemisia tridentata |
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Distribution |
AK; CA; CO; ID; MT; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; NT; NU; SK; YT; especially at high elevations and northern latitudes; Eurasia
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AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; ND; NE; NM; NV; OR; SD; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; nw Mexico
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Discussion | Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Subspecies 4 (4 in the flora). Artemisia tridentata has undergone considerable taxonomic revision in the past century and circumscription of subspecies remains a topic of considerable controversy. Workers in the field should be aware of the morphologic variation within the subspecies across the range of the species (i.e., approximately from the Sierra Nevada in the west to the plains of the Rocky Mountains in the east). Because rangeland managers and conservationists can often identify local morphologic and chemical races based on grazing or habitat preferences of wildlife and domestic animals, some impetus exists to further subdivide the subspecies within A. tridentata at the varietal level. This treatment of the species complex remains conservative in light of the need for further study. As to chemical differences among the subspecies, aroma is often used to distinguish subspecies in the field. Volatile resins in the plants are strongly aromatic and, when crushed, leaves have very distinctive (although not easily described) aromas. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 19, p. 505. | FNA vol. 19, p. 516. | ||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Asteraceae > tribe Anthemideae > Artemisia > subg. Drancunculus | Asteraceae > tribe Anthemideae > Artemisia > subg. Tridentatae | ||||||||||||||||
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Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||||||
Synonyms | A. campestris subsp. borealis | Seriphidium tridentatum | ||||||||||||||||
Name authority | Pallas: Reise Russ. Reich. 3: 755. (1776) | Nuttall: Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., n. s. 7: 398. (1841) | ||||||||||||||||
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