Flora of North America species comparison

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Artemisia furcata

Artemisia papposa

fork wormwood, three-fork mugwort, three-fork wormwood

Owyhee sage, Owyhee sagebrush
Habit Perennials, 7–35 cm (not cespitose), faintly aromatic (not rhizomatous, taproots stout, caudices simple or branched, branches clothed with persistent leaf bases). Shrubs, 5–15(–20) cm (not cespitose), aromatic.
Stems

(flowering) 1–5, erect, light brown, simple, strigillose or glabrate.

relatively numerous, erect, gray, simple (annual flowering branches leafy), loosely sericeous.
Leaves

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.

(semideciduous) cauline (sessile), gray-green;

blades oblanceolate, 0.5–3 × 0.2–1.5 cm (bases attenuate), 3-lobed or irregularly palmatifid (lobes narrow, apices acute), sparsely sericeous-lanate.
Involucres

broadly campanulate, 3–6 × 4.5–8 mm.

globose, 3.5–5 × 4–5 mm.
Florets

pistillate 6–7;

bisexual 15–26;

corollas mostly yellow, sometimes red-tinged, 1–2 mm, glabrous or glabrate.

pistillate 8;

bisexual 20–35;

corollas yellow (tubular with broad throats), ca. 2 mm, glandular.
Phyllaries

(greenish, color often obscured by indument) ovate or lanceolate (margins dark brown), sparsely to densely tomentose.

ovate, sparsely sericeous.
Heads

(erect or spreading, some nodding, peduncles 0 or to 30 mm) in racemiform or spiciform arrays 1–6 × 1–2 cm.

(mostly erect, peduncles 0 or to 25 mm) in racemiform arrays (4–)8–12(–14) × (0.5–)1–2(–4) cm.
Cypselae

oblong (ribbed), 1–1.5 mm, glabrous.

(light brown) oblanceoloid (4–5-angled, broadest at truncate apices), 0.3–0.5 mm, glandular-pubescent (pappi coroniform, 0.3–0.6 mm, irregularly lacerate).
2n

= 18, 36, 72, 90.

Artemisia furcata

Artemisia papposa
Phenology Flowering late summer. Flowering early spring–mid summer.
Habitat Talus slopes or tundra Rocky swales, dry meadows, alkaline mud flats
Elevation 500–2700 m (1600–8900 ft) 1400–2100 m (4600–6900 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AK; WA; AB; BC; NT; NU; YT; Asia
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
ID; NV; OR
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

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.)

The pappose cypselae make Artemisia papposa anomalous within Artemisia. Artemisia papposa has capitulescence characteristics that suggest a relationship to Sphaeromeria.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 19, p. 525. FNA vol. 19, p. 531.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Anthemideae > Artemisia > subg. Artemisia Asteraceae > tribe Anthemideae > Artemisia > subg. Artemisia
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. dracunculus, A. filifolia, A. franserioides, A. frigida, 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
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. dracunculus, 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. 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. furcata var. heterophylla, A. hyperborea, A. tacomensis, A. trifurcata
Name authority M. Bieberstein: Fl. Taur.-Caucas. 3: 567. (1819) S. F. Blake & Cronquist: Leafl. W. Bot. 6: 43, plate 1. (1950)
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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