Artemisia furcata
Artemisia tridentata
fork wormwood, three-fork mugwort, three-fork wormwood
big sagebrush, blue sagebrush, common sagebrush, mountain sagebrush, sagebrush
(flowering) 1–5, erect, light brown, simple, strigillose or glabrate.
gray-brown, glabrate (bark gray, exfoliating in strips).
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, gray-green;
blades usually cuneate, (0.4–)0.5–3.5 × 0.1–0.7 cm, 3-lobed (lobes to 1/3 blade lengths, 1.5+ mm wide, rounded), faces densely hairy.
broadly campanulate, 3–6 × 4.5–8 mm.
lanceolate, (1–)1.5–4 × 1–3 mm.
pistillate 6–7;
bisexual 15–26;
corollas mostly yellow, sometimes red-tinged, 1–2 mm, glabrous or glabrate.
3–8;
corollas 1.5–2.5 mm, glabrous.
(greenish, color often obscured by indument) ovate or lanceolate (margins dark brown), sparsely to densely tomentose.
oblanceolate to widely obovate, densely tomentose.
(erect or spreading, some nodding, peduncles 0 or to 30 mm) in racemiform or spiciform arrays 1–6 × 1–2 cm.
(usually erect, on slender peduncles) in paniculiform arrays 5–30 × 1–6 cm.
oblong (ribbed), 1–1.5 mm, glabrous.
1–2 mm, hairy or glabrous, glandular.
= 18, 36, 72, 90.
Artemisia furcata
Artemisia tridentata
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.)
Subspecies 4 (4 in the flora).
Artemisia tridentata has undergone considerable taxonomic revision in the past century and circumscription of subspecies remains a topic of considerable controversy. Workers in the field should be aware of the morphologic variation within the subspecies across the range of the species (i.e., approximately from the Sierra Nevada in the west to the plains of the Rocky Mountains in the east). Because rangeland managers and conservationists can often identify local morphologic and chemical races based on grazing or habitat preferences of wildlife and domestic animals, some impetus exists to further subdivide the subspecies within A. tridentata at the varietal level. This treatment of the species complex remains conservative in light of the need for further study. As to chemical differences among the subspecies, aroma is often used to distinguish subspecies in the field. Volatile resins in the plants are strongly aromatic and, when crushed, leaves have very distinctive (although not easily described) aromas.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Shrubs 100–200(–300) cm (leaf blades: lengths usually 3+ times widths); heads in relatively broad, paniculiform arrays | → 2 |
1. Shrubs 30–150 cm (leaf blades: lengths usually less than 3 times widths); heads in relatively narrow, paniculiform arrays | → 3 |
2. Involucres 1.5–2.5 × 1–2 mm; deep, well drained (usually sandy) soils in valley bottoms, lower montane slopes along drainages | subsp. tridentata |
2. Involucres 2–4 × 1–2 mm; loose, sandy soils of valleys and foothills | subsp. parishii |
3. Shrubs, 60–80(–150) cm (crowns flat-topped); heads in arrays 10–15 cm; involucres 2–3 × 1.5–3 mm; mountains | subsp. vaseyana |
3. Shrubs, 30–50(–150) cm (crowns rounded); heads in arrays 2–6(–8) cm; involucres (1–)1.5–2 × 1.5–2 mm; usually cold-desert basins and high plateaus, sometimes foothills | subsp. wyomingensis |
- Local floras:
BC, 
CA, 
OR, 
WA - Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos,
Flora NW, 
PNW Herbaria, Turner Photog. 
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist (observations)
USDA Plants Database- LBJ Wildflower Center
- SEINet
- Plants of the World Online
- Encyclopedia of Life
- Wikipedia
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