Artemisia campestris
Artemisia californica
beach wormwood, field sagewort, field wormwood, northern wormwood, Pacific sagewort, sand wormwood
California sagebrush, coastal sage brush
usually 1–5, turning reddish brown, (often ribbed) tomentose or glabrous.
relatively numerous, arched, green or brown, branched (slender, wandlike, bases brittle), densely canescent to glabrate.
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, 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.
broadly turbinate, 2.5–3(–5) × 2–3.5(–7) mm.
globose, 2–3(–4) × 2–4(–5) mm.
pistillate 5–20; functionally staminate 12–30;
corollas pale yellow, sparsely hairy or glabrous.
pistillate 6–10;
bisexual 18–25;
corollas pale yellow, 0.8–1.2 mm, glabrous.
(margins scarious) glabrous or villous-tomentose.
broadly ovate, sparsely canescent.
(pedunculate) in (mostly leafless) paniculiform arrays.
(nodding at maturity, pedunculate) in paniculiform arrays 6–20 × 1–3 cm (branches erect to broadly spreading).
oblong-lanceoloid, somewhat compressed, 0.8–1 mm, faintly nerved, glabrous.
ellipsoid, 0.5–1.5 mm, resinous (pappi coroniform).
= 18.
Artemisia campestris
Artemisia californica
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 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.)
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 |
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