Artemisia frigida

Native to western Minnesota.

Dry. Prairies, fields, meadows, cliffs. Full sun.

July to September

Pale yellow

4″ to 16″

This is an erect, long-lived, perennial forb that rises on up to 24 stems from a woody caudex. It forms a low mound or densely tangled, interwoven mass (mat). Like most Artemisia species, the leaves and stem are strongly aromatic when bruised.

It produces both flowering stems and non-flowering, vegetative stems. The lower stems are vegetative, short, often branched, woody, and spreading. The upper stems are flowering, herbaceous, and erect. They can be from 4″ to 24″ tall, but are usually no more than 16″ in height. The stems are densely covered with short, grayish-white, woolly or felty hairs, giving them a grayish-green appearance.

Leaves are deciduous and 3 ⁄16″ to ⅝″ long or longer. Lower leaves are on short leaf stalks, upper leaves are stalkless. There is often a pair of stipule-like lobes or leaflets at the base of the leaf stalk. The leaf blades are deeply divided into 3 primary lobes (ternate). The primary lobes may be divided into 3 secondary lobes (biternate), which may be again divided into 3 lobes (triternate). The ultimate lobes are narrowly linear, often thread-like, 1 ⁄64″ to 1 ⁄16″ wide, and are mostly sharply pointed at the tip. The upper and lower surfaces are densely covered with short, woolly or felty hairs, giving them a grayish-green appearance. The margins are untoothed and usually rolled under.

The inflorescence is an elongated, leafy, branched cluster (panicle) of at the end of the stems and branches. The panicles are 1½″ to 6″ long or longer, 3 ⁄16″ to ¾″ wide or wider, and have numerous flower heads.

The flower heads are ¼″ in diameter. The whorl of bracts at the base of the flower head (involucre) is globe-shaped, about 3 ⁄16″ long and wide, and 1 ⁄16″ to ⅛″ high. The bracts of the involucre are in 2 or 3 overlapping rows, often indistinct, and moderately to densely covered with woolly hairs. The inner series of bracts have broad, thin, papery, transparent margins and tip. There are no ray florets. The disk has female (pistillate) florets as well as florets that have both male and female parts (perfect). On the margin of the disk are 10 to 17 pale yellow, pistillate florets. In the center are 20 to 50 pale yellow, perfect florets. The receptacle is covered with relatively long, soft, shaggy but unmatted hairs between the florets.

The fruit is a tiny achene.