Flora of North America species comparison

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Artemisia rupestris

Artemisia nova

sagebrush

black sage, black sagebrush
Habit Perennials, 5–15(–25) cm (cespitose), faintly aromatic. Shrubs, 10–30(–50) cm (trunks relatively short, widely and loosely branched), pungently aromatic; not root-sprouting.
Stems

brownish purple, glabrous.

brown, glabrescent (vegetative of approximately equal heights, giving plants a ‘hedged’ appearance; bark dark gray, exfoliating with age).
Leaves

deciduous, bright green;

blades (proximalmost petiolate) ovate, 1.5–5 × 1–2.5 cm, 2–3-pinnately lobed (cauline sessile, ternately or pinnately lobed, terminal lobes lance-linear, 1–6 × 0.5–1 mm), faces glabrous or sparsely hairy, glandular.

persistent, usually bright green to dark green, sometimes gray-green;

blades cuneate, 3-lobed (lobes to 1/3 blade lengths, 0.5–2 × 0.2–1 cm, rounded), faces sparsely hairy, gland-dotted.
Involucres

globose, 4–5(–7) × 4–5(–7) mm.

narrowly turbinate, 2–3 × 2 mm.
Florets

pistillate 14–16 (glandular, style branches exsert, linear, spreading);

bisexual 40–70;

corollas 1.5–2 mm, glabrous or glandular (styles shorter than corollas).

2–6;

corollas 2–3 mm, glabrous (style branches scarcely exsert).
Phyllaries

green (margins light green), ± hairy.

(straw-colored or light green) ovate to elliptic (margins hyaline, shiny-resinous), sparsely hairy or glabrous.
Heads

(5–9, pedunculate or sessile, spreading or drooping) in spiciform arrays 3–9 × 0.5–1 cm.

in paniculiform arrays 4–10 × 0.5–3 cm (branches ± erect; peduncles slender).
Cypselae

ca. 1 mm (apices flat), glabrous.

(ribbed) 0.8–1.5 mm, glabrous or resinous.
2n

= 18, 36.

Artemisia rupestris

Artemisia nova
Phenology Flowering late summer–fall. Flowering mid summer–late fall.
Habitat Steppes, alkaline meadows, stony slopes Shallow soils, desert valleys, exposed mountain slopes
Elevation 0–1400 m (0–4600 ft) 1500–2300 m (4900–7500 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
YT; Asia
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; NM; NV; UT; WY
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

The sole North American occurrence of Artemisia rupestris in southwestern Yukon is a remarkable disjunction from the Asiatic range of this species.

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

Artemisia nova is the common low-growing dark-green (“black”) sagebrush of desert valleys or south-southwest-facing slopes. It is prized by sheep ranchers as forage in areas where little else is available for grazing. It is conspicuous by its low growth habit, dark green foliage, and, in late season, by its pale orange to light brown flowering branches that rise beyond the vegetative growth. Often confused in herbarium collections with A. arbuscula, A. nova is easily distinguished by the entire leaves of the flowering stems, pedunculate heads, narrowly turbinate involucres, and often straw-colored, glabrous or sparsely hairy phyllaries.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 19, p. 520. FNA vol. 19, p. 513.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Anthemideae > Artemisia > subg. Absinthium 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. rothrockii, 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. furcata, A. globularia, A. glomerata, A. laciniata, A. longifolia, A. ludoviciana, A. michauxiana, A. nesiotica, A. norvegica, 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 Absinthium viridifolium var. rupestre, A. rupestris subsp. woodii A. arbuscula subsp. nova, A. arbuscula var. nova, A. tridentata subsp. nova, Seriphidium novum
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 847. (1753) A. Nelson: Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 27: 274. (1900)
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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