Artemisia tridentata |
Artemisia abrotanum |
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big sagebrush, blue sagebrush, common sagebrush, mountain sagebrush, sagebrush |
armoise aurone, garden sagebrush, lad's love, old man, southern wormwood, southernwood |
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Habit | Shrubs, 40–200(–300) cm (herbage gray-haired), aromatic; not root-sprouting (trunks relatively thick). | Perennials or subshrubs, 50–130(–170) cm (not cespitose), aromatic (roots thick, woody). | ||||||||||||
Stems | gray-brown, glabrate (bark gray, exfoliating in strips). |
relatively numerous, erect, brown, branched, (woody, brittle), glabrous or sparsely hairy. |
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Leaves | persistent, gray-green; blades usually cuneate, (0.4–)0.5–3.5 × 0.1–0.7 cm, 3-lobed (lobes to 1/3 blade lengths, 1.5+ mm wide, rounded), faces densely hairy. |
cauline, dark green; blades broadly ovate, (2–)3–6 × 0.02–0.15 cm, 2–3-pinnatifid (lobes linear or filiform), faces sparsely hairy (abaxial) or glabrous (adaxial). |
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Involucres | lanceolate, (1–)1.5–4 × 1–3 mm. |
ovoid, (1–)2–3.5 × (1–)2–2.5 mm. |
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Florets | 3–8; corollas 1.5–2.5 mm, glabrous. |
pistillate 4–8(–15); bisexual 14–16(–20); corollas yellow, 0.5–1 mm, glandular. |
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Phyllaries | oblanceolate to widely obovate, densely tomentose. |
oblong-elliptic, sparsely hairy. |
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Heads | (usually erect, on slender peduncles) in paniculiform arrays 5–30 × 1–6 cm. |
(nodding at maturity) in open, widely branched arrays 10–30 × 2–10 cm. |
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Cypselae | 1–2 mm, hairy or glabrous, glandular. |
(light brown) ellipsoid (2–5-angled, flattened, furrowed), 0.5–1 mm, glabrous. |
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2n | = 18. |
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Artemisia tridentata |
Artemisia abrotanum |
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Phenology | Flowering late summer–fall. | |||||||||||||
Habitat | Waste places | |||||||||||||
Elevation | 0–3000 m (0–9800 ft) | |||||||||||||
Distribution |
AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; ND; NE; NM; NV; OR; SD; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; nw Mexico
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CO; CT; DC; DE; IA; IL; KS; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; NC; NE; NH; NJ; NY; OR; PA; SC; UT; VT; WI; WY; AB; MB; NB; ON; QC; SK; Eurasia; Africa [Introduced in North America] |
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Discussion | Subspecies 4 (4 in the flora). Artemisia tridentata has undergone considerable taxonomic revision in the past century and circumscription of subspecies remains a topic of considerable controversy. Workers in the field should be aware of the morphologic variation within the subspecies across the range of the species (i.e., approximately from the Sierra Nevada in the west to the plains of the Rocky Mountains in the east). Because rangeland managers and conservationists can often identify local morphologic and chemical races based on grazing or habitat preferences of wildlife and domestic animals, some impetus exists to further subdivide the subspecies within A. tridentata at the varietal level. This treatment of the species complex remains conservative in light of the need for further study. As to chemical differences among the subspecies, aroma is often used to distinguish subspecies in the field. Volatile resins in the plants are strongly aromatic and, when crushed, leaves have very distinctive (although not easily described) aromas. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Artemisia abrotanum has been widely cultivated in gardens for old-time uses such as a fly and parasite repellent. It has had a renewed popularity in xeriscape gardening; it is drought tolerant and can fill difficult garden spaces (e.g., dry rocky slopes). Reports of naturalization may be exaggerated; it is not known to become weedy in any of its known locations in North America. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 19, p. 516. | FNA vol. 19, p. 522. | ||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Asteraceae > tribe Anthemideae > Artemisia > subg. Tridentatae | Asteraceae > tribe Anthemideae > Artemisia > subg. Artemisia | ||||||||||||
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Synonyms | Seriphidium tridentatum | |||||||||||||
Name authority | Nuttall: Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., n. s. 7: 398. (1841) | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 845. (1753) | ||||||||||||
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