Flora of North America species comparison

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Artemisia norvegica subsp. saxatilis
Photo is of parent taxon

boreal sagewort, mountain sagewort
Habit Perennials, 25–40(–60) cm (not cespitose), mildly aromatic (roots often horizontal, woody).
Stems

1–3, erect to ascending, green or reddish, simple, glabrous or sparsely tomentose.
Leaves

mostly basal (in rosettes, petiolate), bright green;

blades (basal) broadly lanceolate, 5–8(–10) × 2–3(–4) cm, 1–3-pinnately lobed (apical lobes 1–7 × 1.5–3 mm; mid cauline sessile, pinnately lobed; on flowering stems, sessile, linear, entire), faces glabrous or hairy.
Involucres

globose, (4–)5–8 × 4–10 mm.
Florets

pistillate 6–20;

bisexual (30–)50–70;

corollas yellow or red-tinged, 1.5–2.5(–3.5) mm, long-hairy.
Phyllaries

ovate-lanceolate to elliptic (margins dark brown to black), sparsely hairy to villous.
Heads

(nodding, proximalmost on peduncles to 50 mm) in racemiform arrays 10–17 × 1–2 cm.
Cypselae

ovoid-oblong (angular), ca. 2.5 mm, glabrous or villous.
2n

= 18, 36.

Artemisia norvegica subsp. saxatilis
Phenology Flowering mid–late summer.
Habitat Coastal, arctic, subalpine to alpine habitats, boreal forests, moist soils
Elevation 0–3800 m (0–12500 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AK; CA; CO; MT; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; YT; e Asia (Russian Far East)
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Variation within Artemisia norvegica in North America is not well understood and, for that reason, this treatment represents a conservative taxonomy with only one subspecies for the flora area. Subspecies saxatilis differs from typical A. norvegica primarily by its larger heads. European plants have involucres less than 10 mm in diameter. Chromosome number may be used to justify separation of taxa either at the level of subspecies or species. If separated as distinct species, then A. arctica is the name for North American plants. The diploid A. arctica (2n = 18) and tetraploid A. comata (2n = 36) are treated as separate species by R. Elven et al. (pers. comm.).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 19, p. 530.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Anthemideae > Artemisia > subg. Artemisia > Artemisia norvegica
Synonyms A. chamissoniana var. saxatilis, A. arctica, A. arctica subsp. beringensis, A. arctica subsp. comata, A. arctica subsp. ehrendorferi, A. arctica var. saxatilis, A. comata, A. norvegica var. piceetorum
Name authority (Besser) H. M. Hall & Clements: Publ. Carnegie Inst. Wash. 326: 58. (1923)
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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