Artemisia pedatifida |
Artemisia dracunculus |
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birdfoot sagebrush, Matted sagewort |
dragon herb, dragon sagewort, dragon wormwood, tarragon, wild tarragon |
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Habit | Perennials or subshrubs, 5–15 cm (cespitose), aromatic. | Perennials or subshrubs, 50–120(–150) cm, strongly tarragon-scented or not aromatic; rhizomatous, caudices coarse. |
Stems | (5–20), gray-green, glabrescent. |
relatively numerous, erect, green to brown or reddish brown, somewhat woody, glabrous. |
Leaves | persistent, gray-green, mostly basal; proximal blades reduced, mostly less than 1 cm, lobed or entire; distal blades 1–2 × 0.5–0.8 cm, 1–2-ternately lobed, lobes 1–2 mm wide, apices acute, faces densely tomentose. |
proximal blades bright green and glabrous or gray-green and sparsely hairy, 5–8 cm; cauline blades bright green (gray-green in desert forms), linear, lanceolate, or oblong, 1–7 × 0.1–0.5(–0.9) cm, mostly entire, sometimes irregularly lobed, acute, usually glabrous, sometimes glabrescent (deserts). |
Involucres | globose, 3–4 × 3–4 mm. |
globose, 2–3 × 2–3.5(–6) mm. |
Florets | pistillate 4–7; functionally staminate 5–9; corollas yellow, usually red-tinged, 2–3 mm, glabrous. |
pistillate 6–25; functionally staminate 8–20; corollas pale yellow, 1.8–2 mm, eglandular or sparsely glandular. |
Phyllaries | (margins scarious, obscured) white-tomentose. |
(light brown, broadly lanceolate, membranous): margins broadly hyaline, glabrous. |
Heads | (mostly 6–15, 1 or 3–4 on lateral branches; mostly erect, sessile or pedunculate) in racemiform-paniculiform arrays, 5–8 × 0.5–0.8 cm. |
in terminal or lateral, leafy, paniculiform arrays 15–45 × 6–30 cm; appearing ball-like on slender, sometimes nodding peduncles. |
Cypselae | (brown) ellipsoid (angled), 0.8–1 mm, (sometimes with white ribs) glabrous. |
oblong, 0.5–0.8 mm, faintly nerved, glabrous. |
2n | = 18. |
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Artemisia pedatifida |
Artemisia dracunculus |
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Phenology | Flowering early spring–mid summer. | Flowering mid summer–late fall. |
Habitat | High plains, grasslands | Open meadows and fields, desert scrub, moist drainages, roadsides |
Elevation | 1600–1800 m (5200–5900 ft) | 500–3000 m (1600–9800 ft) |
Distribution |
CO; ID; MT; WY
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AK; AZ; CA; CO; IA; ID; IL; KS; MN; MO; MT; ND; NE; NM; NV; OK; OR; SD; TX; UT; WA; WI; WY; AB; BC; MB; ON; SK; YT; Eurasia
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Discussion | Artemisia dracunculus is widely cultivated as a culinary herb and may be introduced in parts of its range. It is easily cultivated from rootstocks, and while establishment from seeds is rare, seedlings can be found with amenable environmental conditions. Because of its popularity as an herb, it may suffer from overcollecting. Its scarcity in Missouri, Iowa, and Illinois (J. T. Kartesz and C. A. Meacham 1999) may have been caused by overly enthusiastic collecting as well as habitat loss. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Source | FNA vol. 19, p. 509. | FNA vol. 19, p. 508. |
Parent taxa | Asteraceae > tribe Anthemideae > Artemisia > subg. Drancunculus | Asteraceae > tribe Anthemideae > Artemisia > subg. Drancunculus |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | A. aromatica, A. dracunculina, A. dracunculoides, A. dracunculoides subsp. dracunculina, A. glauca, A. glauca var. megacephala | |
Name authority | Nuttall: Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., n. s. 7: 399. (1841) | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 849. (1753) |
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