Artemisia tridentata
Artemisia pontica
big sagebrush, blue sagebrush, common sagebrush, mountain sagebrush, sagebrush
armoise de la mer noire, green-ginger, roman wormwood
gray-brown, glabrate (bark gray, exfoliating in strips).
relatively numerous, erect, brown, mostly simple (brittle, bases woody) canescent or glabrate.
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, grayish green;
sessile (proximalmost short-petiolate);
blades triangular to ovate, 1–5 × 1–3 cm, 2–3-pinnatifid (lobes 0.5–1 mm wide, acute), faces pubescent (abaxial) or hairy to glabrate (adaxial).
lanceolate, (1–)1.5–4 × 1–3 mm.
spheric, 1.5–2(–3) mm.
3–8;
corollas 1.5–2.5 mm, glabrous.
pistillate 10–12;
bisexual 40–45;
corollas pale yellow, 0.2–0.3 mm, sometimes gland-dotted (stigma lobes relatively short, not emerging from tubes, short-ciliate).
oblanceolate to widely obovate, densely tomentose.
(subequal) linear, hairy.
(usually erect, on slender peduncles) in paniculiform arrays 5–30 × 1–6 cm.
(nodding) in paniculiform arrays 10–22 × 2–4 cm.
1–2 mm, hairy or glabrous, glandular.
ellipsoid (angled), 0.1–0.2 mm, glabrous.
= 18.
Artemisia tridentata
Artemisia pontica
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 pontica has finely dissected gray foliage and is widely planted as an ornamental. It escapes locally; it has not been reported as problematic. The only species with which it has been confused in North America is A. abrotanum, which has dark green (not gray) foliage.
(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 |
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BC, 
CA, 
OR, 
WA - Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos,
Flora NW, 
PNW Herbaria, Turner Photog. 
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