Artemisia tridentata |
Artemisia papposa |
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big sagebrush, blue sagebrush, common sagebrush, mountain sagebrush, sagebrush |
Owyhee sage, Owyhee sagebrush |
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Habit | Shrubs, 40–200(–300) cm (herbage gray-haired), aromatic; not root-sprouting (trunks relatively thick). | Shrubs, 5–15(–20) cm (not cespitose), aromatic. | ||||||||||||
Stems | gray-brown, glabrate (bark gray, exfoliating in strips). |
relatively numerous, erect, gray, simple (annual flowering branches leafy), loosely sericeous. |
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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. |
(semideciduous) cauline (sessile), gray-green; blades oblanceolate, 0.5–3 × 0.2–1.5 cm (bases attenuate), 3-lobed or irregularly palmatifid (lobes narrow, apices acute), sparsely sericeous-lanate. |
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Involucres | lanceolate, (1–)1.5–4 × 1–3 mm. |
globose, 3.5–5 × 4–5 mm. |
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Florets | 3–8; corollas 1.5–2.5 mm, glabrous. |
pistillate 8; bisexual 20–35; corollas yellow (tubular with broad throats), ca. 2 mm, glandular. |
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Phyllaries | oblanceolate to widely obovate, densely tomentose. |
ovate, sparsely sericeous. |
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Heads | (usually erect, on slender peduncles) in paniculiform arrays 5–30 × 1–6 cm. |
(mostly erect, peduncles 0 or to 25 mm) in racemiform arrays (4–)8–12(–14) × (0.5–)1–2(–4) cm. |
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Cypselae | 1–2 mm, hairy or glabrous, glandular. |
(light brown) oblanceoloid (4–5-angled, broadest at truncate apices), 0.3–0.5 mm, glandular-pubescent (pappi coroniform, 0.3–0.6 mm, irregularly lacerate). |
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Artemisia tridentata |
Artemisia papposa |
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Phenology | Flowering early spring–mid summer. | |||||||||||||
Habitat | Rocky swales, dry meadows, alkaline mud flats | |||||||||||||
Elevation | 1400–2100 m (4600–6900 ft) | |||||||||||||
Distribution |
AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; ND; NE; NM; NV; OR; SD; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; nw Mexico
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ID; NV; OR |
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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.) |
The pappose cypselae make Artemisia papposa anomalous within Artemisia. Artemisia papposa has capitulescence characteristics that suggest a relationship to Sphaeromeria. (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. 531. | ||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Asteraceae > tribe Anthemideae > Artemisia > subg. Tridentatae | Asteraceae > tribe Anthemideae > Artemisia > subg. Artemisia | ||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||
Synonyms | Seriphidium tridentatum | |||||||||||||
Name authority | Nuttall: Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., n. s. 7: 398. (1841) | S. F. Blake & Cronquist: Leafl. W. Bot. 6: 43, plate 1. (1950) | ||||||||||||
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