Artemisia tridentata
Artemisia ludoviciana
big sagebrush, blue sagebrush, common sagebrush, mountain sagebrush, sagebrush
gray sagewort, prairie sage, silver sage, silver wormwood, western mugwort, western wormwood, white sage, white sagebrush, white wormwood
gray-brown, glabrate (bark gray, exfoliating in strips).
relatively few to relatively numerous, erect, gray-green, simple or widely branched, hairy.
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, uniformly gray-green, green, or white, or bicolor (white and green);
blades linear to broadly elliptic, 1.5–11 × 0.5–4 cm, entire or lobed to relatively deeply pinnatifid, faces hairy.
lanceolate, (1–)1.5–4 × 1–3 mm.
campanulate or turbinate, (1–)2–4(–5) × 2–5(–8) mm.
3–8;
corollas 1.5–2.5 mm, glabrous.
pistillate 5–12;
bisexual 6–45;
corollas yellow, sometimes red-tinged, 1.5–2.8 mm, glabrous.
oblanceolate to widely obovate, densely tomentose.
(gray-green), lanceolate to ovate or obovate (margins narrowly hyaline), densely tomentose.
(usually erect, on slender peduncles) in paniculiform arrays 5–30 × 1–6 cm.
(erect to nodding, peduncles 0 or 2–5 mm) in congested to open (widely branched) arrays.
1–2 mm, hairy or glabrous, glandular.
ellipsoid ca. 0.5 mm, (obscurely nerved) glabrous.
= 18, 36, 54.
Artemisia tridentata
Artemisia ludoviciana
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.)
Subspecies ca. 7 (6 in the flora).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Shrubs 100–200(–300) cm (leaf blades: lengths usually 3+ times widths); heads in relatively broad, paniculiform arrays | → 2 |
1. Shrubs 30–150 cm (leaf blades: lengths usually less than 3 times widths); heads in relatively narrow, paniculiform arrays | → 3 |
2. Involucres 1.5–2.5 × 1–2 mm; deep, well drained (usually sandy) soils in valley bottoms, lower montane slopes along drainages | subsp. tridentata |
2. Involucres 2–4 × 1–2 mm; loose, sandy soils of valleys and foothills | subsp. parishii |
3. Shrubs, 60–80(–150) cm (crowns flat-topped); heads in arrays 10–15 cm; involucres 2–3 × 1.5–3 mm; mountains | subsp. vaseyana |
3. Shrubs, 30–50(–150) cm (crowns rounded); heads in arrays 2–6(–8) cm; involucres (1–)1.5–2 × 1.5–2 mm; usually cold-desert basins and high plateaus, sometimes foothills | subsp. wyomingensis |
1. Leaves usually relatively deeply lobed (1/3+ widths, nearly to midrib, proximal leaves sometimes entire); involucres 3–8 mm diam.; mountain meadows and slopes | → 2 |
1. Leaves entire or relatively shallowly lobed (lobes to 1/3 widths); involucres 2–3(–4) mm diam.; desert valleys and mountains | → 3 |
2. Involucres 4–5 × 4–8 mm | subsp. candicans |
2. Involucres 3–4 × 3–5 mm | subsp. incompta |
3. Heads in paniculiform arrays (4–)8–30 cm diam.; leaves mostly 1.5–2 cm | subsp. albula |
3. Heads in paniculiform or racemiform arrays 1–6 cm diam.; leaves 1.5–11 cm | → 4 |
4. Leaf margins plane | subsp. ludoviciana |
4. Leaf margins revolute | → 5 |
5. Leaves bicolor (gray-green and bright green), margins mostly entire, abaxial faces glabrous | subsp. redolens |
5. Leaves gray-green, margins usually lobed, abaxial faces hairy | subsp. mexicana |
- Local floras:
BC, 
CA, 
OR, 
WA - Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos,
Flora NW, 
PNW Herbaria, Turner Photog. 
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist (observations)
USDA Plants Database- LBJ Wildflower Center
- SEINet
- Plants of the World Online
- Encyclopedia of Life
- Wikipedia
- Google Image Search
- Local floras: BC, CA, OR, WA
- Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos, Flora NW,
Go Botany, 
IL Wildflowers, 
KS Wildflowers, 
LA Plants, 
MD Biodiversity, 
MI Flora, 
MN Wildflowers, 
MO Plants, PNW Herbaria, 
SW CO Wildflowers, Turner Photog. - WildflowerSearch
- iNaturalist (observations)
- USDA Plants Database
- LBJ Wildflower Center
- SEINet
- Plants of the World Online
- Encyclopedia of Life
- Wikipedia
- Google Image Search
