5. Artemisia carruthii A.W. Wood ex Carruth.
Pl. 226 e, f;
Map 945
Plants perennial
herbs, with long-creeping rhizomes, sometimes producing short vegetative stems
among the taller flowering ones, strongly aromatic when bruised. Stems
10–60 cm long, erect or ascending from sometimes spreading bases,
densely pubescent with grayish white, woolly or felty hairs, these hiding the
minute glands. Leaves 0.5–2.5(–5.0) cm long, relatively
long-petiolate to sessile, often with a pair of slender, stipulelike lobes or
leaflets at the base. Leaf blades mostly 1 time pinnately compound or deeply
lobed, narrowly oblanceolate to oblong-ovate or obovate in outline, the main
leaves with 3–5(–7) lobes, the ultimate segments or lobes
0.5–2.0 mm wide, narrowly linear and often threadlike, mostly sharply
pointed at the tip, the margins entire and usually rolled under, both surfaces
densely pubescent with woolly or felty hairs, the upper surface sometimes
glabrous or nearly so, also minutely glandular. Inflorescences appearing
paniculate, ranging from narrow and spikelike with short, densely flowered
branches to more open with longer, ascending branches, the heads sessile and/or
very short-stalked. Heads with the central florets perfect and the marginal
florets usually pistillate, thus all of the florets potentially producing
fruits. Involucre 2.5–4.0 mm long, the bracts in 2 or 3 overlapping
rows, the often indistinct main body linear to oblong-elliptic, moderately to
densely woolly-hairy and minutely glandular, with broad, thin, transparent
margins and tip, these usually glabrous but sometimes appearing cobwebby-hairy.
Receptacle naked, without bristly hairs. Corollas 1.3–2.0 mm long.
Fruits 0.7–1.0 mm long, narrowly ellipsoid-obovoid to nearly
cylindrical, faintly lined, somewhat flattened, reddish brown to brown, shiny.
2n=18. August–October.
Introduced,
uncommon, known only from historical collections from Jackson County (native from Nevada to Kansas south to Arizona and Texas; Mexico; introduced eastward to
New York). Railroads and open, disturbed areas.