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Rothrock sagebrush, sticky sagebrush, timberline sagebrush

Habit Shrubs, 20–50 cm (sticky-resinous and dark green throughout), pungently aromatic; not root-sprouting (trunks relatively narrow).
Stems

white (becoming dark gray with age), canescent (bark exfoliating).

Leaves

persistent, light or dark gray-green;

blades long-cuneate to lanceolate, (0.4–)1–1.5(–2) × 0.2–0.4 cm, 3-lobed (lobes to 1/3 blade lengths, rounded, margins sometimes entire, somewhat wavy), faces densely to sparsely canescent, gland-dotted, sticky-resinous.

Involucres

broadly ovoid, 3–5 × 4–6 mm.

Florets

12–20;

corollas 2.5–3.5 mm.

Phyllaries

(usually gray-green) ovate, densely or sparsely canescent.

Heads

(erect, sessile or pedunculate) in paniculiform arrays, 5–15 × 1–2(–3) cm.

Cypselae

0.8–2 mm, (smooth), resinous.

2n

= 36, 54, 72.

Artemisia rothrockii

Phenology Flowering mid summer–all.
Habitat Clay soils of mountain meadows
Elevation 2500–3100 m (8200–10200 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Artemisia rothrockii is known only from the central and southern Sierra Nevada and the White Mountains of California. In the Rocky Mountains, A. spiciformis has been confused with A. rothrockii. Distinctive chemistry and anatomical structure of the leaves support the distinctness of A. rothrockii (L. M. Shultz 1986b). Intermediate characteristics suggest a hybrid origin from races of A. cana and A. tridentata.

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

Source FNA vol. 19, p. 515.
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. pygmaea, A. rigida, A. rupestris, A. scopulorum, A. senjavinensis, A. serrata, A. spiciformis, A. stelleriana, A. suksdorfii, A. tilesii, A. tridentata, A. tripartita, A. vulgaris
Synonyms A. tridentata subsp. rothrockii, Seriphidium rothrockii
Name authority A. Gray: in W. H. Brewer et al., Bot. California 1: 618. (1876)
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