Artemisia nova
Artemisia arbuscula
black sage, black sagebrush
black sagebrush, dwarf sagebrush, little sagebrush, low sagebrush
brown, glabrescent (vegetative of approximately equal heights, giving plants a ‘hedged’ appearance; bark dark gray, exfoliating with age).
gray-green to brown, glabrate (diffusely branched from bases, brittle).
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.
(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).
narrowly turbinate, 2–3 × 2 mm.
campanulate or globose-ovoid, (1.5–)2–4(–5) × 1.5–4.5 mm.
2–6;
corollas 2–3 mm, glabrous (style branches scarcely exsert).
4–6(–10);
corollas 1.5–2 mm, glabrous.
(straw-colored or light green) ovate to elliptic (margins hyaline, shiny-resinous), sparsely hairy or glabrous.
(margins green) ovate (outer) to oblong, pubescent or tomentose.
in paniculiform arrays 4–10 × 0.5–3 cm (branches ± erect; peduncles slender).
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).
(ribbed) 0.8–1.5 mm, glabrous or resinous.
(light brown) 0.7–0.8 mm, resinous.
= 18, 36.
Artemisia nova
Artemisia arbuscula
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.)
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 |
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