Artemisia tridentata |
Artemisia tripartita |
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big sagebrush, blue sagebrush, common sagebrush, mountain sagebrush, sagebrush |
cut-leaf sagebrush, three-tip sagebrush |
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Habit | Shrubs, 40–200(–300) cm (herbage gray-haired), aromatic; not root-sprouting (trunks relatively thick). | Shrubs, 5–15 or 20–150(–200) cm, aromatic; root-sprouting (caudices with adventitious buds, fibrous rooted). | ||||||||||||||||
Stems | gray-brown, glabrate (bark gray, exfoliating in strips). |
pale gray, glabrous. |
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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. |
deciduous, gray-green; blades broadly cuneate, 1.5–4 × 0.5–2 cm, deeply 3-lobed (lobes 1–1.4 mm wide, acute; cauline leaves smaller, mostly 3-lobed). |
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Involucres | lanceolate, (1–)1.5–4 × 1–3 mm. |
globose or turbinate, 2–4 × 1.5–3 mm. |
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Florets | 3–8; corollas 1.5–2.5 mm, glabrous. |
3–11; corollas 2–2.5 mm, glandular (style branches included). |
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Phyllaries | oblanceolate to widely obovate, densely tomentose. |
broadly lanceolate (margins scarious, obscured by indument), canescent. |
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Heads | (usually erect, on slender peduncles) in paniculiform arrays 5–30 × 1–6 cm. |
in paniculiform or spiciform arrays (5–)8–15(–35) × (0.5–)1–5 cm. |
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Cypselae | 1–2 mm, hairy or glabrous, glandular. |
(columnar, unequally ribbed) 1.8–2.3 mm, glabrous or resinous. |
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Artemisia tridentata |
Artemisia tripartita |
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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; WA; WY; BC
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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.) |
Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora). (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. 518. | ||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Asteraceae > tribe Anthemideae > Artemisia > subg. Tridentatae | Asteraceae > tribe Anthemideae > Artemisia > subg. Tridentatae | ||||||||||||||||
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Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||||||
Synonyms | Seriphidium tridentatum | A. trifida, A. tridentata subsp. trifida, Seriphidium tripartitum | ||||||||||||||||
Name authority | Nuttall: Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., n. s. 7: 398. (1841) | Rydberg: Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 1: 432. (1900) | ||||||||||||||||
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