Artemisia campestris
Artemisia nesiotica
beach wormwood, field sagewort, field wormwood, northern wormwood, Pacific sagewort, sand wormwood
island sagebrush
usually 1–5, turning reddish brown, (often ribbed) tomentose or glabrous.
relatively numerous, ascending or prostrate, gray, simple or branched (slender, wandlike, soft, bases woody and brittle), densely canescent.
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, gray-green;
blades linear-oblong, 3–5 × 1–2 cm, mostly 3-lobed (lobes 1–2 mm wide), faces gray-hairy.
broadly turbinate, 2.5–3(–5) × 2–3.5(–7) mm.
broadly campanulate, 2.5 × 4–4.5 mm.
pistillate 5–20; functionally staminate 12–30;
corollas pale yellow, sparsely hairy or glabrous.
pistillate 0;
bisexual 20–50;
corollas pale yellow, 1.2–1.5 mm, glandular.
(margins scarious) glabrous or villous-tomentose.
broadly ovate, densely hairy.
(pedunculate) in (mostly leafless) paniculiform arrays.
(usually erect, sometimes nodding) in (leafy) paniculiform arrays 10–25 × 3–5(–7) cm.
oblong-lanceoloid, somewhat compressed, 0.8–1 mm, faintly nerved, glabrous.
(light brown) ellipsoid (ribbed), 0.5 mm, resinous.
Artemisia campestris
Artemisia nesiotica
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 nesiotica is known only from the Channel Islands of California. It differs from the closely related A. californica by its shorter stature, wider leaf lobes, and larger heads.
(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
