Artemisia campestris ssp. caudata

field sagewort (Artemisia campestris)

Native

Dry. Prairies, woods.

Late July to mid-September

Pale yellow

8″ to 32″

This is a 8″ to 32″ tall, erect, biennial or short-lived perennial forb that rises on usually 1, sometimes 2 to 5 stems from a large taproot. Unlike most Artemisia species, the leaves and stem are not fragrant or are only slightly fragrant when crushed.

In the first year it forms a rosette of basal leaves. In the second year it send up a flowering stem. It usually dies after bearing fruit once.

The stems are erect or ascending, usually unbranched, and hairless at maturity. They are green at first, eventually turning reddish-brown.

Basal leaves are numerous, green, feathery in appearance, 1½″ to 4¾″ long including the leaf stalk, and up to 1½″ wide. They are deeply pinnately lobed into 3 to 7 primary lobes (pinnate). The primary lobes are again divided into secondary lobes (bipinnate), which may be once more lobed (3 times pinnately lobed). The ultimate lobes are mostly sharply pointed at the tip, narrowly linear, and 1 ⁄50″ to 1 ⁄16″wide. The upper and lower surfaces are sometimes sparsely to moderately covered with fine, white, cobwebby hairs when young, but are hairless when mature. The margins are untoothed. Basal leaves and lower stem leaves are usually withered by flowering time.

Stem leaves are similar, alternate, ¾″ to 1½″ long, and 3 ⁄16″ to ⅝″ wide, becoming gradually smaller and less divided as they ascend the stem. They do not have leaf-like stipules or stipule-like lobes at the base.

The inflorescence is a narrow, elongated, branched cluster (panicle) of numerous flower heads at the end of the stems and branches. The panicles are 4¾″ to 11¾″ long, ⅜″ to 3⅛″ wide, and mostly leafless.

The flower head is small, top-shaped, and inconspicuous. The whorl of bracts at the base of the flower head (involucre) is about 1 ⁄16″ long and 1 ⁄16″ wide. On the margin of the disc are 5 to 20 pale yellow ray florets with both stamens and pistils that are fertile and produce fruits. In the center are 12 to 30 pale yellow disk florets that also have both stamens and pistils, but have abortive ovaries and do not produce fruits. There is no floral scent.

The fruit is a tiny achene.

Northern sagewort (Artemisia campestris ssp. borealis var. borealis) is a shorter plant, no more than 15¾″ tall. It is usually in the form of a 4″ to 12″ tall mound. The panicles are much shorter, 3″ to 4″ long, with fewer but larger heads. The involucres are globe-shaped, not top-shaped, and are larger, ⅛″ long and ⅛″ to 3 ⁄16″ wide.