Artemisia vulgaris
Artemisia ludoviciana
armoise vulgaire, common mugwort, common wormwood, felon-herb, green-ginger, lobed wormwood, mugwort
gray sagewort, prairie sage, silver sage, silver wormwood, western mugwort, western wormwood, white sage, white sagebrush, white wormwood
relatively numerous, erect, brownish to reddish brown, simple proximally, branched distally (angularly ribbed), sparsely hairy or glabrous.
relatively few to relatively numerous, erect, gray-green, simple or widely branched, 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).
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.
ovoid to campanulate, 2–3(–4) mm.
campanulate or turbinate, (1–)2–4(–5) × 2–5(–8) 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 5–12;
bisexual 6–45;
corollas yellow, sometimes red-tinged, 1.5–2.8 mm, glabrous.
lanceolate, hairy or glabrescent.
(gray-green), lanceolate to ovate or obovate (margins narrowly hyaline), densely tomentose.
in compact, paniculiform or racemiform arrays (10–)20–30(–40) × (5–)7–15(–20) cm.
(erect to nodding, peduncles 0 or 2–5 mm) in congested to open (widely branched) arrays.
ellipsoid, 0.5–1(–1.2) mm, glabrous, sometimes resinous.
ellipsoid ca. 0.5 mm, (obscurely nerved) glabrous.
= 18, 36, 40, 54.
= 18, 36, 54.
Artemisia vulgaris
Artemisia ludoviciana
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.)
Subspecies ca. 7 (6 in the flora).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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, 
OR, 
WA - Local Web sites:
Flora NW, 
Go Botany, 
IL Wildflowers, 
KS Wildflowers, 
LA Plants, 
MD Biodiversity, 
MI Flora, 
MN Wildflowers, 
MO Plants, 
PNW Herbaria 
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
