Flora of North America species comparison

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Artemisia dracunculus

dragon herb, dragon sagewort, dragon wormwood, tarragon, wild tarragon
Habit Perennials or subshrubs, 50–120(–150) cm, strongly tarragon-scented or not aromatic; rhizomatous, caudices coarse.
Stems

relatively numerous, erect, green to brown or reddish brown, somewhat woody, glabrous.
Leaves

proximal blades bright green and glabrous or gray-green and sparsely hairy, 5–8 cm;

cauline blades bright green (gray-green in desert forms), linear, lanceolate, or oblong, 1–7 × 0.1–0.5(–0.9) cm, mostly entire, sometimes irregularly lobed, acute, usually glabrous, sometimes glabrescent (deserts).
Involucres

globose, 2–3 × 2–3.5(–6) mm.
Florets

pistillate 6–25; functionally staminate 8–20;

corollas pale yellow, 1.8–2 mm, eglandular or sparsely glandular.
Phyllaries

(light brown, broadly lanceolate, membranous): margins broadly hyaline, glabrous.
Heads

in terminal or lateral, leafy, paniculiform arrays 15–45 × 6–30 cm; appearing ball-like on slender, sometimes nodding peduncles.
Cypselae

oblong, 0.5–0.8 mm, faintly nerved, glabrous.
2n

= 18.

Artemisia dracunculus
Phenology Flowering mid summer–late fall.
Habitat Open meadows and fields, desert scrub, moist drainages, roadsides
Elevation 500–3000 m (1600–9800 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AK; AZ; CA; CO; IA; ID; IL; KS; MN; MO; MT; ND; NE; NM; NV; OK; OR; SD; TX; UT; WA; WI; WY; AB; BC; MB; ON; SK; YT; Eurasia
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Artemisia dracunculus is widely cultivated as a culinary herb and may be introduced in parts of its range. It is easily cultivated from rootstocks, and while establishment from seeds is rare, seedlings can be found with amenable environmental conditions. Because of its popularity as an herb, it may suffer from overcollecting. Its scarcity in Missouri, Iowa, and Illinois (J. T. Kartesz and C. A. Meacham 1999) may have been caused by overly enthusiastic collecting as well as habitat loss.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 19, p. 508.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Anthemideae > Artemisia > subg. Drancunculus
Sibling taxa
A. abrotanum, A. absinthium, A. alaskana, A. aleutica, A. annua, A. arbuscula, A. biennis, A. bigelovii, A. borealis, A. californica, A. campestris, A. cana, A. carruthii, A. douglasiana, A. filifolia, A. franserioides, A. frigida, A. furcata, A. globularia, A. glomerata, A. laciniata, A. longifolia, A. ludoviciana, A. michauxiana, A. nesiotica, A. norvegica, A. nova, A. packardiae, A. palmeri, A. papposa, A. pattersonii, A. pedatifida, A. pontica, A. porteri, A. pycnocephala, A. pygmaea, A. rigida, A. rothrockii, A. rupestris, A. scopulorum, A. senjavinensis, A. serrata, A. spiciformis, A. stelleriana, A. suksdorfii, A. tilesii, A. tridentata, A. tripartita, A. vulgaris
Synonyms A. aromatica, A. dracunculina, A. dracunculoides, A. dracunculoides subsp. dracunculina, A. glauca, A. glauca var. megacephala
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 849. (1753)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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