Flora of North America species comparison

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Artemisia globularia

Artemisia stelleriana

purple wormwood

armoise de Steller, beach wormwood, dusty miller, oldwoman, Steller's wormwood
Habit Perennials, (3–)5–16(–30) cm (cespitose), faintly aromatic (not rhizomatous, taproots stout, caudices simple or branched, proximal branches clothed with persistent leaf bases). Perennials, (15–)20–60(–70) cm (mat-forming), sometimes faintly aromatic (rhizomes creeping, relatively thin).
Stems

1–5, erect, whitish gray, densely tomentose.

1–3, erect or ascending, white, simple (stout), densely tomentose to floccose.
Leaves

mostly basal (cauline 1–4), greenish to whitish green;

blades (basal) 1–4.5 × 0.6–1.5 cm, 1–2-ternately to palmately lobed (flowering-stem blades 3-lobed), faces sparsely hairy.

basal and cauline (petiolate), silver-gray;

blades oblanceolate, (proximalmost) 3–10 × 1–5 cm, pinnatifid (lobes relatively broad, rounded; distal leaves, on flowering stems, smaller), faces densely tomentose.
Involucres

campanulate or hemispheric, 3.5–6 × 6–11 mm.

broadly campanulate, 5–8 × 6–7 mm.
Florets

pistillate 9–10;

bisexual 20–30;

corollas yellow or reddish black, 2–3 mm, sometimes glandular.

pistillate 12–16;

bisexual 25–30;

corollas yellow (narrow or tubular), 3.2–4 mm (unusually large), glabrous or sparsely hairy (style branches prominent, erect, blunt).
Phyllaries

lanceolate (margins brown), pilose.

broadly lanceolate, tomentose.
Heads

(2–20, peduncles 0 or to 25 mm) in subcapitate to capitate arrays 2–3 × 2–3 cm.

(erect or spreading, peduncles 0 or to 3 mm) in dense, paniculiform, racemiform, or spiciform arrays 8–20 × 2–4 cm.
Cypselae

oblong, 1.5–2.5 mm, (apices flattened) glabrous.

(dark brown) narrowly oblong-linear (slightly flattened, smooth), 3–4 mm, glabrous.
2n

= 18.

Artemisia globularia

Artemisia stelleriana
Phenology Flowering early spring–fall.
Habitat Sandy soils, coastal strand
Elevation 0–200 m (0–700 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AK; YT; Asia
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AK; CT; DE; FL; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; NC; NH; NJ; NY; OH; PA; RI; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; NB; NF; NS; ON; PE; QC; SPM; n Europe; e Asia (Japan, Kamchatka)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Artemisia stelleriana is apparently native along the western tip of the Aleutian islands (D. F. Murray, pers. comm.). It is an attractive ornamental and, in parts of its range in the flora area, it appears to have escaped from cultivation and is naturalized in beach dunes and other sandy habitats.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Corollas reddish black; cypselae ca. 2.5 mm, margins with relatively narrow ribs
subsp. globularia
1. Corollas yellow; cypselae 1.5–2 mm, margins with relatively broad ribs
subsp. lutea
Source FNA vol. 19, p. 525. FNA vol. 19, p. 532.
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. furcata, 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. 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. suksdorfii, A. tilesii, A. tridentata, A. tripartita, A. vulgaris
Subordinate taxa
A. globularia subsp. globularia, A. globularia subsp. lutea
Synonyms Ajania globularia, A. norvegica subsp. globularia
Name authority Chamisso ex Besser: Nouv. Mém. Soc. Imp. Naturalistes Moscou 3: 64. (1833) Besser: Nouv. Mém. Soc. Imp. Naturalistes Moscou 3: 79, plate 5. (1834)
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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