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Habit Biennials, perennials, or subshrubs (shrubs in A. filifolia); fibrous rooted or taprooted, caudices woody, rhizomes absent.
Stems

wandlike (new stems may sprout from caudices).

Leaves

deciduous (persistent in A. aleutica and A. borealis), usually cauline, sometimes basal, not in fascicles.

Receptacles

epaleate, glabrous.

Florets

peripheral 1–25 pistillate and fertile;

central 3–32 functionally staminate (not setting fruits);

corollas subglobose.

Heads

disciform.

Artemisia subg. Drancunculus

Distribution
North America; Eurasia
Discussion

Species ca. 80 (8 in the flora).

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

Key
1. Plants 5–30(–80+) cm (often cespitose and/or mounded)
→ 2
1. Plants (10–)50–180 cm (not cespitose)
→ 5
2. Perennials; leaves 2–3-palmately or -pinnately lobed
→ 3
2. Perennials or subshrubs; leaves 1–2-pinnately or -ternately lobed
→ 4
3. Leaves 2-palmately lobed; corollas purplish red; Aleutian Islands
A. aleutica
3. Leaves 2–3-pinnately or -ternately lobed; corollas (at least lobes) usually yellow- orange or deep red; n latitudes and w mountains
A. borealis
4. Leaves gray-green, lobes 1–2 mm wide; involucres 3–4 × 3–4 mm; corollas yellow, usually red-tinged, glabrous
A. pedatifida
4. Leaves silver-green, lobes mostly 2–3 mm wide; involucres 4–5(–7) × 2–3 mm wide; corollas pale yellow, glandular
A. porteri
5. Plants tarragon-scented or not aromatic; leaves mostly entire, sometimes (basal) irregularly lobed, faces usually glabrous, sometimes glabrescent (deserts)
A. dracunculus
5. Plants faintly to strongly aromatic (not tarragon-scented); leaves lobed, faces hairy
→ 6
6. Shrubs, 60–180 cm (rounded, stems wandlike); involucres 1.5–2 mm diam
A. filifolia
6. Biennials or perennials, (10–)30–80(–150) cm; involucres 2–4.5(–7) mm diam
→ 7
7. Stems usually 1–5; heads in (mostly leafless) paniculiform arrays
A. campestris
7. Stems usually 10+; heads (clustered in glomerules) in (densely leafy) paniculiform to spiciform arrays
A. pycnocephala
Source FNA vol. 19, p. 505.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Anthemideae > Artemisia
Subordinate taxa
A. aleutica, A. borealis, A. campestris, A. dracunculus, A. filifolia, A. pedatifida, A. porteri, A. pycnocephala
Name authority Besser: Bull. Soc. Imp. Naturalistes Moscou 1: 223. (1829)
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