Artemisia vulgaris
Artemisia porteri
armoise vulgaire, common mugwort, common wormwood, felon-herb, green-ginger, lobed wormwood, mugwort
Porter mugwort, Porter's wormwood
relatively numerous, erect, brownish to reddish brown, simple proximally, branched distally (angularly ribbed), sparsely hairy or glabrous.
5–8, silver-gray, densely tomentose.
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).
persistent, silver-green, mostly basal;
proximalmost blades 3–4 × 1–1.5 cm, 1-pinnately lobed, lobes mostly 2–3 mm wide;
blades of flowering stems somewhat reduced, (1–)2–3(–5) × 0.15 cm, mostly entire;
apices rounded, faces densely hairy.
ovoid to campanulate, 2–3(–4) mm.
broadly campanulate, 4–5(–7) × 2–3 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 8–10 (2–2.8 mm); functionally staminate 22–32;
corollas pale yellow, 2.2–4.5 mm, glandular.
lanceolate, hairy or glabrescent.
(ovate, margins broadly scarious) densely tomentose.
in compact, paniculiform or racemiform arrays (10–)20–30(–40) × (5–)7–15(–20) cm.
borne singly or (clustered in 2s and 3s on lateral branches; peduncles 0 or to 5 mm) in paniculiform arrays, (2–)4–9 × 1–1.5(–2) cm.
ellipsoid, 0.5–1(–1.2) mm, glabrous, sometimes resinous.
(light brown) ellipsoid, flattened (faintly nerved), 1.5–2 mm, sparsely hairy, glabrous or resinous.
= 18, 36, 40, 54.
Artemisia vulgaris
Artemisia porteri
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.)
Although Cronquist observed that Artemisia porteri may be an autopolyploid derivative of A. pedatifida, morphologic similarities to northerly cespitose taxa suggest a more complex origin.
Artemisia porteri is in the Center for Plant Conservation’s National Collection of Endangered Plants.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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