Artemisia stelleriana
Artemisia bigelovii
armoise de Steller, beach wormwood, dusty miller, oldwoman, Steller's wormwood
Bigelow sage, Bigelow sagebrush, Bigelow sagewort, Bigelow's sage
1–3, erect or ascending, white, simple (stout), densely tomentose to floccose.
silvery, canescent (bark gray-brown).
basal and cauline (petiolate), silver-gray;
blades oblanceolate, (proximalmost) 3–10 × 1–5 cm, pinnatifid (lobes relatively broad, rounded; distal leaves, on flowering stems, smaller), faces densely tomentose.
persistent, light gray-green;
blades narrowly cuneate, 0.5–3 × 0.2–0.5 cm, entire or 3(–5)-lobed (lobes 1.5–2 mm, less than 1/3 blade lengths, acute), faces silvery canescent.
broadly campanulate, 5–8 × 6–7 mm.
globose, 2–3 × 1.5–2.5 mm.
pistillate 12–16;
bisexual 25–30;
corollas yellow (narrow or tubular), 3.2–4 mm (unusually large), glabrous or sparsely hairy (style branches prominent, erect, blunt).
pistillate 0–2 (raylike, laminae to 1 mm);
bisexual 1–3;
corollas 1–1.5 mm (style branches of ray florets elongate, exsert, epapillate, tips acute; of disc florets, short, truncate, papillate).
broadly lanceolate, tomentose.
(8–15) ovate, canescent or tomentose.
(erect or spreading, peduncles 0 or to 3 mm) in dense, paniculiform, racemiform, or spiciform arrays 8–20 × 2–4 cm.
(usually nodding) in arrays 6–25 × 1–4 cm (branches erect, somewhat curved).
(dark brown) narrowly oblong-linear (slightly flattened, smooth), 3–4 mm, glabrous.
(ellipsoid, 5-ribbed) 0.8–1 mm, glabrous.
= 18.
= 18, 36, 72.
Artemisia stelleriana
Artemisia bigelovii
Artemisia stelleriana is apparently native along the western tip of the Aleutian islands (D. F. Murray, pers. comm.). It is an attractive ornamental and, in parts of its range in the flora area, it appears to have escaped from cultivation and is naturalized in beach dunes and other sandy habitats.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Artemisia bigelovii of the southwestern deserts is easily confused in the field with A. tridentata, even though it is well distinguished ecologically and morphologically. Systematic placement within subg. Tridentatae remains problematic. Presence of “ray” florets (though rare) and vestigial spines on the pollen (R. P. Wodehouse 1935) suggest a relationship with groups ancestral to Tridentatae. The species also has the unusual characteristic of lignified trichomes (L. M. Shultz 1986b). Further research may help to determine proper placement; its affinities may be with members of subg. Artemisia.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
BC
WA
Flora NW
Go Botany
LA Plants
MD Biodiversity
MI Flora
MN Wildflowers
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
CA
SW CO Wildflowers
