Artemisia furcata
Artemisia bigelovii
fork wormwood, three-fork mugwort, three-fork wormwood
Bigelow sage, Bigelow sagebrush, Bigelow sagewort, Bigelow's sage
(flowering) 1–5, erect, light brown, simple, strigillose or glabrate.
silvery, canescent (bark gray-brown).
basal (in rosettes) and cauline, gray-green;
blades oval, 2–10(–12) cm (basal) or 1–1.5 × 0.4–0.6 cm (cauline), 1–3-palmately lobed, faces sparsely to densely strigillose.
persistent, light gray-green;
blades narrowly cuneate, 0.5–3 × 0.2–0.5 cm, entire or 3(–5)-lobed (lobes 1.5–2 mm, less than 1/3 blade lengths, acute), faces silvery canescent.
broadly campanulate, 3–6 × 4.5–8 mm.
globose, 2–3 × 1.5–2.5 mm.
pistillate 6–7;
bisexual 15–26;
corollas mostly yellow, sometimes red-tinged, 1–2 mm, glabrous or glabrate.
pistillate 0–2 (raylike, laminae to 1 mm);
bisexual 1–3;
corollas 1–1.5 mm (style branches of ray florets elongate, exsert, epapillate, tips acute; of disc florets, short, truncate, papillate).
(greenish, color often obscured by indument) ovate or lanceolate (margins dark brown), sparsely to densely tomentose.
(8–15) ovate, canescent or tomentose.
(erect or spreading, some nodding, peduncles 0 or to 30 mm) in racemiform or spiciform arrays 1–6 × 1–2 cm.
(usually nodding) in arrays 6–25 × 1–4 cm (branches erect, somewhat curved).
oblong (ribbed), 1–1.5 mm, glabrous.
(ellipsoid, 5-ribbed) 0.8–1 mm, glabrous.
= 18, 36, 72, 90.
= 18, 36, 72.
Artemisia furcata
Artemisia bigelovii
Artemisia furcata extends from the islands of the Bering Sea into southern and interior Alaska, parts of Canada (disjunct in British Columbia and the northernmost Rocky Mountains of Alberta), and on Mt. Rainier in Washington. The array of names applied to A. furcata shows the taxonomic confusion arising from a myriad of morphologic variants that may indicate introgression with other species.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Artemisia bigelovii of the southwestern deserts is easily confused in the field with A. tridentata, even though it is well distinguished ecologically and morphologically. Systematic placement within subg. Tridentatae remains problematic. Presence of “ray” florets (though rare) and vestigial spines on the pollen (R. P. Wodehouse 1935) suggest a relationship with groups ancestral to Tridentatae. The species also has the unusual characteristic of lignified trichomes (L. M. Shultz 1986b). Further research may help to determine proper placement; its affinities may be with members of subg. Artemisia.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
BC
WA
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
CA
SW CO Wildflowers
