Artemisia dracunculus
Artemisia filifolia
dragon herb, dragon sagewort, dragon wormwood, tarragon, wild tarragon
sand sage, sand sagebrush, sandhill sage, silvery wormwood
relatively numerous, erect, green to brown or reddish brown, somewhat woody, glabrous.
green or gray-green, wandlike (usually slender, curved, sometimes stout and stunted in harsh habitats), glabrous or sparsely hairy.
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).
gray-green;
blades linear if entire, obovate if lobed, (1.5–)2–5(–6) × 0.1–2.5 cm, entire to 3-lobed, lobes filiform (less than 1 mm wide), apices acute, glabrous or sparsely hairy.
globose, 2–3 × 2–3.5(–6) mm.
globose, 1.5–2 × 1.5–2 mm.
pistillate 6–25; functionally staminate 8–20;
corollas pale yellow, 1.8–2 mm, eglandular or sparsely glandular.
pistillate 1–4; functionally staminate 3–6;
corollas pale yellow, 1–1.5 mm, glabrous.
(light brown, broadly lanceolate, membranous): margins broadly hyaline, glabrous.
(ovate, inconspicuous, margins scarious) densely hairy.
in terminal or lateral, leafy, paniculiform arrays 15–45 × 6–30 cm; appearing ball-like on slender, sometimes nodding peduncles.
(mostly sessile) in paniculiform arrays 8–15(–17) × 2–4(–5) cm (branches erect to somewhat recurved).
oblong, 0.5–0.8 mm, faintly nerved, glabrous.
oblong (distally incurved-falcate and oblique), 0.2–0.5 mm, obscurely nerved, glabrous.
= 18.
= 18.
Artemisia dracunculus
Artemisia filifolia
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.)
One of the more easily distinguished of the shrubby Artemisia species, A. filifolia occurs in sandy soils and cohabits with species of Yucca, Cactaceae, and Salvia dorrii, the purple sage of western literary fame. Its filiform leaves and faintly aromatic foliage distinguish it from members of subg. Tridentatae.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
- Local floras:
BC, 
CA, 
OR, 
WA - Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos,
Flora NW, 
IL Wildflowers, 
KS Wildflowers, 
MN Wildflowers, 
MO Plants, 
PNW Herbaria, 
SW CO Wildflowers, Turner Photog. 
WildflowerSearch
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USDA Plants Database- LBJ Wildflower Center
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