Artemisia campestris
Artemisia frigida
beach wormwood, field sagewort, field wormwood, northern wormwood, Pacific sagewort, sand wormwood
arctic sage, armoise douce, estafiata, fringe sage, fringe sagebrush, pasture sage, prairie sagebrush, prairie sagewort, prairie wormwood
usually 1–5, turning reddish brown, (often ribbed) tomentose or glabrous.
gray-green or brown, glabrescent.
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.
persistent, silver-gray;
blades ovate, 0.5–1.5(–2.5) cm, 1–2-ternately lobed (lobes 0.2–0.5 mm wide), faces densely whitish-pubescent.
broadly turbinate, 2.5–3(–5) × 2–3.5(–7) mm.
globose, (3–)5 × (2–)5–6 mm.
pistillate 5–20; functionally staminate 12–30;
corollas pale yellow, sparsely hairy or glabrous.
pistillate 10–17;
bisexual 20–50;
corollas 1.5–2 mm, glabrous.
(margins scarious) glabrous or villous-tomentose.
gray-green (margins sometimes brownish), densely tomentose.
(pedunculate) in (mostly leafless) paniculiform arrays.
in (leafy) paniculiform arrays 0.5–2(–4) × 4–15(–20) cm.
oblong-lanceoloid, somewhat compressed, 0.8–1 mm, faintly nerved, glabrous.
1–1.5 mm, glabrous.
= 18.
Artemisia campestris
Artemisia frigida
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.)
Reports of Artemisia frigida from eastern Canada (Ontario eastward), the eastern United States (e.g., Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, Vermont), and Arkansas and Missouri appear to be from old garden sites where the plants may persist. The similarity of this native species to cultivars from eastern Asia (especially Siberia) has led to a number of reports that are apparently based on other cultivars. As a plant with attractive silver foliage, this species has good potential as a drought-hardy plant for flower gardens in cold climates.
(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
SW CO Wildflowers
