Artemisia nesiotica
Artemisia arbuscula
island sagebrush
black sagebrush, dwarf sagebrush, little sagebrush, low sagebrush
relatively numerous, ascending or prostrate, gray, simple or branched (slender, wandlike, soft, bases woody and brittle), densely canescent.
gray-green to brown, glabrate (diffusely branched from bases, brittle).
cauline, gray-green;
blades linear-oblong, 3–5 × 1–2 cm, mostly 3-lobed (lobes 1–2 mm wide), faces gray-hairy.
(vegetative stems) persistent, gray-green;
blades broadly to narrowly cuneate, 3–10 × 2–5 mm, lobed (lobes 3, oblong-linear, to 1/3 blade lengths, mostly 1–3 mm wide, flat, obtuse, laterals sometimes 2–3-fid; leaves on flowering stems deciduous, blades narrowly cuneate, deeply 3-lobed), faces densely hairy (not sticky resinous).
broadly campanulate, 2.5 × 4–4.5 mm.
campanulate or globose-ovoid, (1.5–)2–4(–5) × 1.5–4.5 mm.
pistillate 0;
bisexual 20–50;
corollas pale yellow, 1.2–1.5 mm, glandular.
4–6(–10);
corollas 1.5–2 mm, glabrous.
broadly ovate, densely hairy.
(margins green) ovate (outer) to oblong, pubescent or tomentose.
(usually erect, sometimes nodding) in (leafy) paniculiform arrays 10–25 × 3–5(–7) cm.
usually borne singly, rarely (1–4, erect, mostly sessile, in pedunculate clusters) in spiciform or paniculiform arrays 2–9 × 0.5–2 cm (branches slender).
(light brown) ellipsoid (ribbed), 0.5 mm, resinous.
(light brown) 0.7–0.8 mm, resinous.
Artemisia nesiotica
Artemisia arbuscula
Artemisia nesiotica is known only from the Channel Islands of California. It differs from the closely related A. californica by its shorter stature, wider leaf lobes, and larger heads.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Subspecies 3 (3 in the flora).
Artemisia arbuscula is one of the more perplexing species in the Tridentatae complex. Anatomic and morphologic characteristics suggest multiple hybrid origins for the subspecies. Deciduous leaves of flowering stems in plants that otherwise have persistent leaves suggest a hybrid origin involving plants of the A. tridentata and A. cana lineages. In most instances, populations of A. arbuscula appear to be reproductively stable. The disposition of Artemisia arbuscula subsp. longicaulis Winward & McArthur (with 2n = 54) has not been determined.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Involucres 2–4.5 mm diam.; usually in rocky soils; flowering mid–late summer | subsp. arbuscula |
1. Involucres 1.5–2.5 mm diam.; clays or stony soils; flowering early spring–late summer | → 2 |
2. Leaves broadly cuneate (4–10 × 2–5 mm, often irregularly lobed, lobes rounded, middle lobes overlapping lateral lobes); usually in clay soils; flower- ing early spring | subsp. longiloba |
2. Leaves narrowly cuneate (5–10 × 3–6 mm, lobed, lobes 1/2+ blade lengths, laterals to 1 mm wide, of-ten acute); usually in stony soils; flowering mid–late summer | subsp. thermopola |
- Local floras:
CA, 
OR, 
WA - Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos,
Flora NW, 
PNW Herbaria 
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist (observations)
USDA Plants Database- LBJ Wildflower Center
- SEINet
- Plants of the World Online
- Encyclopedia of Life
- Wikipedia
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