Artemisia vulgaris
Artemisia filifolia
armoise vulgaire, common mugwort, common wormwood, felon-herb, green-ginger, lobed wormwood, mugwort
sand sage, sand sagebrush, sandhill sage, silvery wormwood
relatively numerous, erect, brownish to reddish brown, simple proximally, branched distally (angularly ribbed), sparsely hairy or glabrous.
green or gray-green, wandlike (usually slender, curved, sometimes stout and stunted in harsh habitats), glabrous or sparsely hairy.
basal (petiolate) and cauline (sessile), uniformly green or bicolor;
blades broadly lanceolate, ovate, or linear, (2–)3–10(–12) × 1.8–8 cm (proximal reduced and entire, distal pinnately dissected, lobes to 20 mm wide), faces pubescent or glabrescent (abaxial) or glabrous (adaxial).
gray-green;
blades linear if entire, obovate if lobed, (1.5–)2–5(–6) × 0.1–2.5 cm, entire to 3-lobed, lobes filiform (less than 1 mm wide), apices acute, glabrous or sparsely hairy.
ovoid to campanulate, 2–3(–4) mm.
globose, 1.5–2 × 1.5–2 mm.
pistillate 7–10;
bisexual (5–)8–20;
corollas yellowish to reddish brown, 1.5–3 mm, glabrous (style branches arched-curved, truncate, ciliate).
pistillate 1–4; functionally staminate 3–6;
corollas pale yellow, 1–1.5 mm, glabrous.
lanceolate, hairy or glabrescent.
(ovate, inconspicuous, margins scarious) densely hairy.
in compact, paniculiform or racemiform arrays (10–)20–30(–40) × (5–)7–15(–20) cm.
(mostly sessile) in paniculiform arrays 8–15(–17) × 2–4(–5) cm (branches erect to somewhat recurved).
ellipsoid, 0.5–1(–1.2) mm, glabrous, sometimes resinous.
oblong (distally incurved-falcate and oblique), 0.2–0.5 mm, obscurely nerved, glabrous.
= 18, 36, 40, 54.
= 18.
Artemisia vulgaris
Artemisia filifolia
Grown as a medicinal plant, most commonly as a vermifuge, Artemisia vulgaris is widely established in eastern North America and is often weedy in disturbed sites. Populational differences in morphologic forms are reflected in size of flowering heads, degree of dissection of leaves, and overall color of plants (from pale to dark green), suggesting multiple introductions that may date back to the first visits by Europeans. It is tempting to recognize the different forms as subspecies and varieties; the array of variation in the field is bewildering. If genetically distinct forms exist in native populations, the differences appear to have been blurred by introgression among the various introductions in North America. A case could be made for recognizing var. kamtschatica in Alaska based on its larger heads and shorter growth form; apparent introgression with populations that extend across Canada confounds that taxonomic segregation.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
One of the more easily distinguished of the shrubby Artemisia species, A. filifolia occurs in sandy soils and cohabits with species of Yucca, Cactaceae, and Salvia dorrii, the purple sage of western literary fame. Its filiform leaves and faintly aromatic foliage distinguish it from members of subg. Tridentatae.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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