Flora of North America species comparison

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Artemisia pygmaea

pygmy sage, pygmy sagebrush
Habit Shrubs, 5–10 cm, slightly aromatic; not root-sprouting (caudices coarsely woody, branched).
Stems

pale to light brown (stiffly erect, densely clothed with appressed foliage), sparsely tomentose.
Leaves

persistent (sessile, rigid), bright green;

blades oblong to ovate, 0.3–0.5 × 0.2–0.3 cm, pinnately lobed (nearly to midribs, 1/3+ widths of blades, lobes 3–7, divergent), faces glabrous or sparsely tomentose, resinous.
Involucres

narrowly turbinate, 2–3 × 3–4 mm.
Florets

2–6;

corollas 2.5–3 mm, glandular (style branches flat, erose, exsert).
Phyllaries

(green) narrowly lanceolate (midribs prominent), glabrous or sparsely tomentose.
Heads

(sessile, erect) in paniculiform to racemiform arrays (1–)2–3 × 0.5–1 cm.
Cypselae

(prismatic) 0.4–0.5 mm, glabrous, resinous.
2n

= 18.

Artemisia pygmaea
Phenology Flowering mid summer–fall.
Habitat Fine-textured soils of gypsum or shale
Elevation 1500–1800 m (4900–5900 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CO; NM; NV; UT
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Artemisia pygmaea is a distinctive, faintly aromatic shrublet, often mistaken for something other than a sagebrush. In early spring its stiff, bright green, deeply pinnatifid leaves are reminiscent of some prickly member of Polemoniaceae. After flowering, its heads and narrow panicles easily identify it as a member of Artemisia; it is unlike other members of the subgenus (which typically have 3-lobed leaves in fascicled lateral shoots). The molecular analysis by L. E. Watson et al. (2002) supported its phylogenetic alignment within subg. Tridentatae.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 19, p. 514.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Anthemideae > Artemisia > subg. Tridentatae
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. pedatifida, A. pontica, A. porteri, A. pycnocephala, 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 Seriphidium pygmaeum
Name authority A. Gray: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 21: 413. (1886)
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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