Artemisia dracunculus |
Artemisia franserioides |
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dragon herb, dragon sagewort, dragon wormwood, tarragon, wild tarragon |
bursage mugwort, ragweed sagebrush |
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Habit | Perennials or subshrubs, 50–120(–150) cm, strongly tarragon-scented or not aromatic; rhizomatous, caudices coarse. | Biennials or perennials, 30–100 cm, faintly aromatic (rhizomatous). |
Stems | relatively numerous, erect, green to brown or reddish brown, somewhat woody, glabrous. |
1–3, erect, reddish brown, simple (leafy), glabrous or glabrate. |
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). |
basal (in rosettes, petiolate) and cauline, bicolor (white and green); blades ovate, 3–7(–20) × 2–4(–6) cm, 2–3-pinnately-lobed (lobes elliptic, 2–6 mm wide; cauline sessile, smaller), faces tomentose (abaxial) or glabrous or glabrescent (adaxial), glandular. |
Involucres | globose, 2–3 × 2–3.5(–6) mm. |
broadly ovate, 3–5 × 4–5(–6) mm. |
Florets | pistillate 6–25; functionally staminate 8–20; corollas pale yellow, 1.8–2 mm, eglandular or sparsely glandular. |
pistillate 4–5(–13), (1–1.5 mm); bisexual 25–35; corollas yellow, 1.5–2 mm, glabrous. |
Phyllaries | (light brown, broadly lanceolate, membranous): margins broadly hyaline, glabrous. |
broadly ovate, sparsely hairy. |
Heads | in terminal or lateral, leafy, paniculiform arrays 15–45 × 6–30 cm; appearing ball-like on slender, sometimes nodding peduncles. |
(nodding, peduncles 0 or 2) in paniculiform to racemiform arrays 10–35 × 2–4 cm (often 1-sided). |
Cypselae | oblong, 0.5–0.8 mm, faintly nerved, glabrous. |
elliptic, 0.5–0.8 mm, glabrous. |
2n | = 18. |
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Artemisia dracunculus |
Artemisia franserioides |
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Phenology | Flowering mid summer–late fall. | Flowering late summer–early fall. |
Habitat | Open meadows and fields, desert scrub, moist drainages, roadsides | Open coniferous forests, mid to upper montane |
Elevation | 500–3000 m (1600–9800 ft) | 2200–3100 m (7200–10200 ft) |
Distribution |
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
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AZ; CO; NM; Mexico (Chihuahua)
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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.) |
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Source | FNA vol. 19, p. 508. | FNA vol. 19, p. 525. |
Parent taxa | Asteraceae > tribe Anthemideae > Artemisia > subg. Drancunculus | Asteraceae > tribe Anthemideae > Artemisia > subg. Artemisia |
Sibling taxa | ||
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) | Greene: Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 10: 42. (1883) |
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