Silver Wormwood
Artemisia ludoviciana
Photographed near Bumblebee, Yavapai Co., Arizona. August 2008.
SUB-SHRUB: Shrubby near base, but otherwise herbaceous. The plants are
typically about a meter tall. Usually a
number of upright stems that branch freely from the base.
LEAVES: Leaves are narrowly elliptic, sometimes lobed, and covered with
silvery hairs. The herbaceous stems are also so covered giving the whole plant
a silvery, silky appearance.
RANGE: Found mostly on the terraces in sycamore canyons and fairly
common at low, mid and sometimes the highest elevation ranges. Ranges also
across much of North America with considerable variation in leaf size, overall
structure and degree of hirsuteness.
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
Asteraceae -- Sunflower Family
More Information:
- Southwest Environmental Information Network
- Desert Tropicals - Cultivation Info
- Wikipedia
- USDA Plant Profile
- Google Images
- Google Scholar Literature Search