Silver Wormwood
White Sagebrush
Artemisia ludoviciana
Photographed near Bumblebee, Yavapai Co., Arizona. August 2008.
SUB-SHRUB: Shrubby near base, but otherwise herbaceous. In the Sonoran
Desert rarely more than a meter tall.
Usually a number of upright stems.
LEAVES: Leaves are narrow/elyptic, sometimes lobed, and covered with
silvery hairs. The herbaceous stems are also covered giving the whole plant a
silvery, silky appearance.
RANGE: Found mostly at mid to upper elevations of the Sonoran Desert on
rocky slopes and in canyons. Ranges across much of North America with
considerable variation in leaf size, overall structure and degree of
hirsuteness. Many cultivars are available in gardens and nurseries.
FLOWERS: Small heads, barely larger than a pencil eraser, of disc
flowers. Yellow florets barely exposed as the surrounding bracts do not open
widely and are covered with long, silky
trichomes.
FRUIT: Small achene seeds without a
pappus mostly ten or fewer per head.
UNARMED