Artemisia vulgaris |
Artemisia tripartita |
|||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
armoise vulgaire, common mugwort, common wormwood, felon-herb, green-ginger, lobed wormwood, mugwort |
cut-leaf sagebrush, three-tip sagebrush |
|||||
Habit | Perennials, (40–)60–190 cm, sometimes faintly aromatic (rhizomes coarse). | Shrubs, 5–15 or 20–150(–200) cm, aromatic; root-sprouting (caudices with adventitious buds, fibrous rooted). | ||||
Stems | relatively numerous, erect, brownish to reddish brown, simple proximally, branched distally (angularly ribbed), sparsely hairy or glabrous. |
pale gray, glabrous. |
||||
Leaves | 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). |
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). |
||||
Involucres | ovoid to campanulate, 2–3(–4) mm. |
globose or turbinate, 2–4 × 1.5–3 mm. |
||||
Florets | pistillate 7–10; bisexual (5–)8–20; corollas yellowish to reddish brown, 1.5–3 mm, glabrous (style branches arched-curved, truncate, ciliate). |
3–11; corollas 2–2.5 mm, glandular (style branches included). |
||||
Phyllaries | lanceolate, hairy or glabrescent. |
broadly lanceolate (margins scarious, obscured by indument), canescent. |
||||
Heads | in compact, paniculiform or racemiform arrays (10–)20–30(–40) × (5–)7–15(–20) cm. |
in paniculiform or spiciform arrays (5–)8–15(–35) × (0.5–)1–5 cm. |
||||
Cypselae | ellipsoid, 0.5–1(–1.2) mm, glabrous, sometimes resinous. |
(columnar, unequally ribbed) 1.8–2.3 mm, glabrous or resinous. |
||||
2n | = 18, 36, 40, 54. |
|||||
Artemisia vulgaris |
Artemisia tripartita |
|||||
Phenology | Flowering mid summer–late fall. | |||||
Habitat | Sandy or loamy soils, forested areas, coastal strands, roadsides | |||||
Elevation | 0–500 m (0–1600 ft) | |||||
Distribution |
AK; AL; CT; DC; DE; FL; GA; IA; ID; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MT; NC; NH; NJ; NY; OH; OR; PA; RI; SC; TN; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; AB; BC; MB; NB; NF; NS; ON; PE; QC; SK; Greenland; Eurasia [Introduced in North America]
|
ID; NV; OR; WA; WY; BC
|
||||
Discussion | 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 2 (2 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
||||
Key |
|
|||||
Source | FNA vol. 19, p. 533. | FNA vol. 19, p. 518. | ||||
Parent taxa | ||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | A. opulenta, A. vulgaris var. glabra, A. vulgaris var. kamtschatica | A. trifida, A. tridentata subsp. trifida, Seriphidium tripartitum | ||||
Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 848. (1753) | Rydberg: Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 1: 432. (1900) | ||||
Web links |
|
|