Artemisia californica
Artemisia tripartita
California sagebrush, coastal sage brush
cut-leaf sagebrush, three-tip sagebrush
relatively numerous, arched, green or brown, branched (slender, wandlike, bases brittle), densely canescent to glabrate.
pale gray, glabrous.
cauline, light green to gray;
blades filiform or spatulate to obovate, 3–5(–9) × 0.5–2 cm, sometimes pinnately lobed (lobes filiform, 0.5–1 mm wide), faces sparsely to densely hairy.
deciduous, gray-green;
blades broadly cuneate, 1.5–4 × 0.5–2 cm, deeply 3-lobed (lobes 1–1.4 mm wide, acute; cauline leaves smaller, mostly 3-lobed).
globose, 2–3(–4) × 2–4(–5) mm.
globose or turbinate, 2–4 × 1.5–3 mm.
pistillate 6–10;
bisexual 18–25;
corollas pale yellow, 0.8–1.2 mm, glabrous.
3–11;
corollas 2–2.5 mm, glandular (style branches included).
broadly ovate, sparsely canescent.
broadly lanceolate (margins scarious, obscured by indument), canescent.
(nodding at maturity, pedunculate) in paniculiform arrays 6–20 × 1–3 cm (branches erect to broadly spreading).
in paniculiform or spiciform arrays (5–)8–15(–35) × (0.5–)1–5 cm.
ellipsoid, 0.5–1.5 mm, resinous (pappi coroniform).
(columnar, unequally ribbed) 1.8–2.3 mm, glabrous or resinous.
= 18.
Artemisia californica
Artemisia tripartita
Artemisia californica is the common sagebrush of chaparral in southern California. Its threadlike leaves and green flowering heads distinguish it from any other shrub in California. Artemisia nesiotica, an endemic of the Channel Islands that was initially considered a morphologic variant of A. californica, is distinct in size and form. Systematic placement of the complex may be problematic. The molecular phylogeny of L. E. Watson et al. (2002) suggests an alignment of A. californica within subg. Tridentatae. Based on this finding, a subgeneric realignment of this species may be in order. The odor of A. californica is markedly like that of the culinary mints known as common sage (Salvia species).
(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. Shrubs 20–150(–200) cm; lobes of leaves linear, to 0.5 mm wide; loamy soils, w of continental divide | subsp. tripartita |
1. Shrubs 5–15 cm; lobes of leaves lanceolate, 1–1.5 mm wide; stony grasslands, e Wyoming | subsp. rupicola |
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BC, 
OR, 
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