Artemisia campestris
Artemisia abrotanum
beach wormwood, field sagewort, field wormwood, northern wormwood, Pacific sagewort, sand wormwood
armoise aurone, garden sagebrush, lad's love, old man, southern wormwood, southernwood
usually 1–5, turning reddish brown, (often ribbed) tomentose or glabrous.
relatively numerous, erect, brown, branched, (woody, brittle), glabrous or sparsely hairy.
persistent or deciduous, mostly basal;
basal blades 4–12 cm;
cauline gradually reduced, 2–4 × 0.5–1.5 cm, 2–3-pinnately lobed, lobes linear to narrowly oblong, apices acute, faces densely to sparsely white-pubescent.
cauline, dark green;
blades broadly ovate, (2–)3–6 × 0.02–0.15 cm, 2–3-pinnatifid (lobes linear or filiform), faces sparsely hairy (abaxial) or glabrous (adaxial).
broadly turbinate, 2.5–3(–5) × 2–3.5(–7) mm.
ovoid, (1–)2–3.5 × (1–)2–2.5 mm.
pistillate 5–20; functionally staminate 12–30;
corollas pale yellow, sparsely hairy or glabrous.
pistillate 4–8(–15);
bisexual 14–16(–20);
corollas yellow, 0.5–1 mm, glandular.
(margins scarious) glabrous or villous-tomentose.
oblong-elliptic, sparsely hairy.
(pedunculate) in (mostly leafless) paniculiform arrays.
(nodding at maturity) in open, widely branched arrays 10–30 × 2–10 cm.
oblong-lanceoloid, somewhat compressed, 0.8–1 mm, faintly nerved, glabrous.
(light brown) ellipsoid (2–5-angled, flattened, furrowed), 0.5–1 mm, glabrous.
= 18.
Artemisia campestris
Artemisia abrotanum
Subspecies ca. 7 (3 in the flora).
Artemisia campestris varies; each morphologic form grades into another. The present circumscription is conservative in that only three subspecies are recognized; the subspecies usually can be separated geographically as well as morphologically. Populations in western North America consist primarily of subsp. pacifica; east of the continental divide, plants are assigned to subsp. canadensis in northern latitudes and to subsp. caudata in southern latitudes.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Artemisia abrotanum has been widely cultivated in gardens for old-time uses such as a fly and parasite repellent. It has had a renewed popularity in xeriscape gardening; it is drought tolerant and can fill difficult garden spaces (e.g., dry rocky slopes). Reports of naturalization may be exaggerated; it is not known to become weedy in any of its known locations in North America.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Perennials; stems 2–5; basal rosettes persistent | subsp. pacifica |
1. Biennials; stems 1(–3); basal rosettes not persistent (withering before flowering) | → 2 |
2. Involucres globose, 3–4 × 3.5–5 mm; n of 50°, primarily Canada | subsp. canadensis |
2. Involucres turbinate, 2–3 × 2–3 mm; s of 50°, e from Rocky Mountains to coastal North America | subsp. caudata |
- Local floras:
BC, 
OR, 
WA - Local Web sites:
CalFlora, CalPhotos, 
Flora NW, 
Go Botany, 
IL Wildflowers, 
KS Wildflowers, 
MI Flora, 
MN Wildflowers, 
MO Plants, 
PNW Herbaria 
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist (observations)
USDA Plants Database- LBJ Wildflower Center
- SEINet
- Plants of the World Online
- Encyclopedia of Life
- Wikipedia
- Google Image Search
- Local floras: OR
- Local Web sites: Flora NW, Go Botany, IL Wildflowers, KS Wildflowers,
MD Biodiversity, MI Flora, MN Wildflowers, PNW Herbaria - WildflowerSearch
- iNaturalist (observations)
- USDA Plants Database
- LBJ Wildflower Center
- SEINet
- Plants of the World Online
- Encyclopedia of Life
- Wikipedia
- Google Image Search
