Flora of North America species comparison

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Artemisia pedatifida

Artemisia furcata

birdfoot sagebrush, Matted sagewort

fork wormwood, three-fork mugwort, three-fork wormwood
Habit Perennials or subshrubs, 5–15 cm (cespitose), aromatic. Perennials, 7–35 cm (not cespitose), faintly aromatic (not rhizomatous, taproots stout, caudices simple or branched, branches clothed with persistent leaf bases).
Stems

(5–20), gray-green, glabrescent.

(flowering) 1–5, erect, light brown, simple, strigillose or glabrate.
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.

basal (in rosettes) and cauline, gray-green;

blades oval, 2–10(–12) cm (basal) or 1–1.5 × 0.4–0.6 cm (cauline), 1–3-palmately lobed, faces sparsely to densely strigillose.
Involucres

globose, 3–4 × 3–4 mm.

broadly campanulate, 3–6 × 4.5–8 mm.
Florets

pistillate 4–7; functionally staminate 5–9;

corollas yellow, usually red-tinged, 2–3 mm, glabrous.

pistillate 6–7;

bisexual 15–26;

corollas mostly yellow, sometimes red-tinged, 1–2 mm, glabrous or glabrate.
Phyllaries

(margins scarious, obscured) white-tomentose.

(greenish, color often obscured by indument) ovate or lanceolate (margins dark brown), sparsely to densely tomentose.
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.

(erect or spreading, some nodding, peduncles 0 or to 30 mm) in racemiform or spiciform arrays 1–6 × 1–2 cm.
Cypselae

(brown) ellipsoid (angled), 0.8–1 mm, (sometimes with white ribs) glabrous.

oblong (ribbed), 1–1.5 mm, glabrous.
2n

= 18, 36, 72, 90.

Artemisia pedatifida

Artemisia furcata
Phenology Flowering early spring–mid summer. Flowering late summer.
Habitat High plains, grasslands Talus slopes or tundra
Elevation 1600–1800 m (5200–5900 ft) 500–2700 m (1600–8900 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CO; ID; MT; WY
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AK; WA; AB; BC; NT; NU; YT; Asia
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Artemisia furcata extends from the islands of the Bering Sea into southern and interior Alaska, parts of Canada (disjunct in British Columbia and the northernmost Rocky Mountains of Alberta), and on Mt. Rainier in Washington. The array of names applied to A. furcata shows the taxonomic confusion arising from a myriad of morphologic variants that may indicate introgression with other species.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 19, p. 509. FNA vol. 19, p. 525.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Anthemideae > Artemisia > subg. Drancunculus 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. pattersonii, 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. 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. 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. furcata var. heterophylla, A. hyperborea, A. tacomensis, A. trifurcata
Name authority Nuttall: Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., n. s. 7: 399. (1841) M. Bieberstein: Fl. Taur.-Caucas. 3: 567. (1819)
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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