Artemisia serrata

Perennials, 50-100(-300) cm (not cespitose), pleasantly aromatic (fibrous-rooted, rhizomes horizontal, relatively short). Stems 2-5, erect, brown, mostly simple (bases woody), sparsely tomentose. Leaves cauline, bicolor (white and green); blades lanceolate, 7-15 × 1-2.5 cm, serrate (teeth ca. 2 mm), faces densely tomentose (abaxial) or glabrate (adaxial). Heads (peduncles 0 or to 2 mm) in racemiform arrays 10-15 × 5-15 cm. Involucres campanulate, 2.5-3 × 2-2.5 mm. Phyllaries lanceolate (margins hyaline), densely tomentose. Florets: pistillate 3-5; bisexual 9-10; corollas pale yellow, 1.5-2 mm, sparsely glandular. Cypselae ellipsoid, ca. 1 mm, glabrous. 2n = 36.

Flowering mid summer-early fall. Grasslands and barren areas on high plains; 500-1800 m; Ill., Iowa, Minn., N.Y., N.Dak., Wis.

Artemisia serrata is closely related to A. ludoviciana and A. longifolia; it is distinguished by its prominent, serrated leaf margins. It is apparently native to the upper Mississippi Valley and naturalized in New York, presumably following introduction as a garden plant. Reports from Kansas and Missouri may be based on collections of A. ludoviciana.

Rhizomatous perennial 1-3 m; stem glabrous or nearly so below the infl; lvs numerous, lanceolate or lance-linear, acuminate, sharply and regularly serrate, 8-15 cm נ8-25 mm, green and essentially glabrous above, densely white-tomentose beneath, sometimes with a pair of small, stipule- like lobes at base; infl ample, generally leafy, invol 2.5-3.5 mm; disk-cors 2 mm; achenes ellipsoid, not nerved or ridged; 2n=36. Prairies and low ground; Minn. and Io. to Ill., and intr. in N.Y. Aug.-Oct.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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