Artemisia palmeri
Artemisia tridentata
Palmer sagewort, San Diego sagewort
big sagebrush, blue sagebrush, common sagebrush, mountain sagebrush, sagebrush
usually 1–15, erect, brown, simple (wandlike, brittle, bases woody), glabrous.
gray-brown, glabrate (bark gray, exfoliating in strips).
cauline (petiolate), bicolor (gray-green and dark green);
blades broadly lanceolate, 3.5–12(–15) × 0.2–10 cm, relatively deeply and coarsely pinnately lobed (lobes 3–7+), faces canescent (abaxial) or glabrous or sparsely hairy (adaxial).
persistent, gray-green;
blades usually cuneate, (0.4–)0.5–3.5 × 0.1–0.7 cm, 3-lobed (lobes to 1/3 blade lengths, 1.5+ mm wide, rounded), faces densely hairy.
globose, 2.5–3.5 × 2–5 mm.
lanceolate, (1–)1.5–4 × 1–3 mm.
pistillate 0;
bisexual 8–30;
corollas pale yellow, 1.5–2.2 mm, resinous-glandular (style branches exsert, truncate, erose).
3–8;
corollas 1.5–2.5 mm, glabrous.
(pale green to stramineous) broadly ovate, glabrous or sparsely hairy (receptacles paleate).
oblanceolate to widely obovate, densely tomentose.
(erect or nodding, peduncles relatively slender) in open, paniculiform arrays, 15–40 × 3–10 cm (widely branched).
(usually erect, on slender peduncles) in paniculiform arrays 5–30 × 1–6 cm.
(light brown, shiny) ellipsoid, 1–1.2 mm, (4-angled), glabrous or glandular.
1–2 mm, hairy or glabrous, glandular.
= 18.
Artemisia palmeri
Artemisia tridentata
Of conservation concern.
Artemisia palmeri is known only from drainages near the coast, from northeast of San Diego to just south of Ensenada. Most of its habitat has been destroyed by urban development. It is of particular interest because of its paleate receptacles, an anomalous trait that confounds our understanding of its evolutionary relationship to other species of Artemisia.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Subspecies 4 (4 in the flora).
Artemisia tridentata has undergone considerable taxonomic revision in the past century and circumscription of subspecies remains a topic of considerable controversy. Workers in the field should be aware of the morphologic variation within the subspecies across the range of the species (i.e., approximately from the Sierra Nevada in the west to the plains of the Rocky Mountains in the east). Because rangeland managers and conservationists can often identify local morphologic and chemical races based on grazing or habitat preferences of wildlife and domestic animals, some impetus exists to further subdivide the subspecies within A. tridentata at the varietal level. This treatment of the species complex remains conservative in light of the need for further study. As to chemical differences among the subspecies, aroma is often used to distinguish subspecies in the field. Volatile resins in the plants are strongly aromatic and, when crushed, leaves have very distinctive (although not easily described) aromas.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Shrubs 100–200(–300) cm (leaf blades: lengths usually 3+ times widths); heads in relatively broad, paniculiform arrays | → 2 |
1. Shrubs 30–150 cm (leaf blades: lengths usually less than 3 times widths); heads in relatively narrow, paniculiform arrays | → 3 |
2. Involucres 1.5–2.5 × 1–2 mm; deep, well drained (usually sandy) soils in valley bottoms, lower montane slopes along drainages | subsp. tridentata |
2. Involucres 2–4 × 1–2 mm; loose, sandy soils of valleys and foothills | subsp. parishii |
3. Shrubs, 60–80(–150) cm (crowns flat-topped); heads in arrays 10–15 cm; involucres 2–3 × 1.5–3 mm; mountains | subsp. vaseyana |
3. Shrubs, 30–50(–150) cm (crowns rounded); heads in arrays 2–6(–8) cm; involucres (1–)1.5–2 × 1.5–2 mm; usually cold-desert basins and high plateaus, sometimes foothills | subsp. wyomingensis |
- Local floras:
BC, 
CA, 
OR, 
WA - Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos,
Flora NW, 
PNW Herbaria, Turner Photog. 
WildflowerSearch
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USDA Plants Database- LBJ Wildflower Center
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