Flora of North America species comparison

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Artemisia nesiotica

Artemisia nova

island sagebrush

black sage, black sagebrush
Habit Subshrubs, 10–60 cm (rounded), aromatic. Shrubs, 10–30(–50) cm (trunks relatively short, widely and loosely branched), pungently aromatic; not root-sprouting.
Stems

relatively numerous, ascending or prostrate, gray, simple or branched (slender, wandlike, soft, bases woody and brittle), densely canescent.

brown, glabrescent (vegetative of approximately equal heights, giving plants a ‘hedged’ appearance; bark dark gray, exfoliating with age).
Leaves

cauline, gray-green;

blades linear-oblong, 3–5 × 1–2 cm, mostly 3-lobed (lobes 1–2 mm wide), faces gray-hairy.

persistent, usually bright green to dark green, sometimes gray-green;

blades cuneate, 3-lobed (lobes to 1/3 blade lengths, 0.5–2 × 0.2–1 cm, rounded), faces sparsely hairy, gland-dotted.
Involucres

broadly campanulate, 2.5 × 4–4.5 mm.

narrowly turbinate, 2–3 × 2 mm.
Florets

pistillate 0;

bisexual 20–50;

corollas pale yellow, 1.2–1.5 mm, glandular.

2–6;

corollas 2–3 mm, glabrous (style branches scarcely exsert).
Phyllaries

broadly ovate, densely hairy.

(straw-colored or light green) ovate to elliptic (margins hyaline, shiny-resinous), sparsely hairy or glabrous.
Heads

(usually erect, sometimes nodding) in (leafy) paniculiform arrays 10–25 × 3–5(–7) cm.

in paniculiform arrays 4–10 × 0.5–3 cm (branches ± erect; peduncles slender).
Cypselae

(light brown) ellipsoid (ribbed), 0.5 mm, resinous.

(ribbed) 0.8–1.5 mm, glabrous or resinous.
2n

= 18, 36.

Artemisia nesiotica

Artemisia nova
Phenology Flowering mid–late summer. Flowering mid summer–late fall.
Habitat Rocky slopes, often fog-shrouded hillsides Shallow soils, desert valleys, exposed mountain slopes
Elevation 0–100 m (0–300 ft) 1500–2300 m (4900–7500 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA
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from FNA
AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; NM; NV; UT; WY
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[BONAP county map]
Discussion

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.)

Artemisia nova is the common low-growing dark-green (“black”) sagebrush of desert valleys or south-southwest-facing slopes. It is prized by sheep ranchers as forage in areas where little else is available for grazing. It is conspicuous by its low growth habit, dark green foliage, and, in late season, by its pale orange to light brown flowering branches that rise beyond the vegetative growth. Often confused in herbarium collections with A. arbuscula, A. nova is easily distinguished by the entire leaves of the flowering stems, pedunculate heads, narrowly turbinate involucres, and often straw-colored, glabrous or sparsely hairy phyllaries.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 19, p. 530. FNA vol. 19, p. 513.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Anthemideae > Artemisia > subg. Artemisia Asteraceae > tribe Anthemideae > Artemisia > subg. Tridentatae
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. globularia, A. glomerata, A. laciniata, A. longifolia, A. ludoviciana, A. michauxiana, 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. 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
Synonyms Crossostephium insulare, A. californica var. insularis A. arbuscula subsp. nova, A. arbuscula var. nova, A. tridentata subsp. nova, Seriphidium novum
Name authority P. H. Raven: Aliso 5: 341. (1963) A. Nelson: Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 27: 274. (1900)
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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