Artemisia dracunculus
Artemisia frigida
dragon herb, dragon sagewort, dragon wormwood, tarragon, wild tarragon
arctic sage, armoise douce, estafiata, fringe sage, fringe sagebrush, pasture sage, prairie sagebrush, prairie sagewort, prairie wormwood
relatively numerous, erect, green to brown or reddish brown, somewhat woody, glabrous.
gray-green or brown, glabrescent.
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).
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.
globose, 2–3 × 2–3.5(–6) mm.
globose, (3–)5 × (2–)5–6 mm.
pistillate 6–25; functionally staminate 8–20;
corollas pale yellow, 1.8–2 mm, eglandular or sparsely glandular.
pistillate 10–17;
bisexual 20–50;
corollas 1.5–2 mm, glabrous.
(light brown, broadly lanceolate, membranous): margins broadly hyaline, glabrous.
gray-green (margins sometimes brownish), densely tomentose.
in terminal or lateral, leafy, paniculiform arrays 15–45 × 6–30 cm; appearing ball-like on slender, sometimes nodding peduncles.
in (leafy) paniculiform arrays 0.5–2(–4) × 4–15(–20) cm.
oblong, 0.5–0.8 mm, faintly nerved, glabrous.
1–1.5 mm, glabrous.
= 18.
= 18.
Artemisia dracunculus
Artemisia frigida
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.)
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.)
- 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
iNaturalist (observations)
USDA Plants Database- LBJ Wildflower Center
- SEINet
- Plants of the World Online
- Encyclopedia of Life
- Wikipedia
- Google Image Search
