Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Artemisia pattersonii

Artemisia abrotanum

Patterson sagewort, Patterson's wormwood

armoise aurone, garden sagebrush, lad's love, old man, southern wormwood, southernwood
Habit Perennials, 8–20 cm, mildly aromatic. Perennials or subshrubs, 50–130(–170) cm (not cespitose), aromatic (roots thick, woody).
Stems

gray-brown, glabrate or finely pubescent.

relatively numerous, erect, brown, branched, (woody, brittle), glabrous or sparsely hairy.
Leaves

deciduous, gray-green;

petiolate;

blades (basal) broadly spatulate, 2–4 × 0.5 cm, pinnately lobed (lobes ca. 1.5 mm wide; cauline smaller, 1-pinnately lobed or entire), faces silky-hairy.

cauline, dark green;

blades broadly ovate, (2–)3–6 × 0.02–0.15 cm, 2–3-pinnatifid (lobes linear or filiform), faces sparsely hairy (abaxial) or glabrous (adaxial).
Involucres

broadly hemispheric, 5–8 × 5–8(–10) mm.

ovoid, (1–)2–3.5 × (1–)2–2.5 mm.
Florets

pistillate 7–27;

bisexual 32–100;

corollas (yellow tinged with red), 2–3 mm (including exsert anthers), mostly glabrous (embedded in tangled receptacular hairs).

pistillate 4–8(–15);

bisexual 14–16(–20);

corollas yellow, 0.5–1 mm, glandular.
Phyllaries

gray (margins dark brown to black), villous.

oblong-elliptic, sparsely hairy.
Heads

borne singly or (2–5, spreading to nodding, pedunculate) in paniculiform or racemiform arrays 1–5 × 0.5–1 cm.

(nodding at maturity) in open, widely branched arrays 10–30 × 2–10 cm.
Cypselae

1.5–2 mm, glabrous.

(light brown) ellipsoid (2–5-angled, flattened, furrowed), 0.5–1 mm, glabrous.
2n

= 14.

= 18.

Artemisia pattersonii

Artemisia abrotanum
Phenology Flowering mid–late summer. Flowering late summer–fall.
Habitat Alpine meadows Waste places
Elevation 3500–4000 m (11500–13100 ft) 0–3000 m (0–9800 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CO; NM; WY
from FNA
CO; CT; DC; DE; IA; IL; KS; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; NC; NE; NH; NJ; NY; OR; PA; SC; UT; VT; WI; WY; AB; MB; NB; ON; QC; SK; Eurasia; Africa [Introduced in North America]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Artemisia pattersonii can be distinguished from the closely related A. scopulorum by its heads being borne singly and narrower phyllary margins.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Artemisia abrotanum has been widely cultivated in gardens for old-time uses such as a fly and parasite repellent. It has had a renewed popularity in xeriscape gardening; it is drought tolerant and can fill difficult garden spaces (e.g., dry rocky slopes). Reports of naturalization may be exaggerated; it is not known to become weedy in any of its known locations in North America.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 19, p. 520. FNA vol. 19, p. 522.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Anthemideae > Artemisia > subg. Absinthium Asteraceae > tribe Anthemideae > Artemisia > subg. Artemisia
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. nesiotica, A. norvegica, A. nova, A. packardiae, A. palmeri, A. papposa, 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. 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. 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
Synonyms A. monocephala, A. scopulorum var. monocephala
Name authority A. Gray: in A. Gray et al., Syn. Fl. N. Amer. ed. 2, 1(2): 453. (1886) Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 845. (1753)
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).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America, OregonFlora

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers