Artemisia pycnocephala

Perennials, 30-70(-100) cm, faintly aromatic. Stems usually 10+ (rising beyond basal leaves, decumbent), whitish gray, (ca. 5 mm diam., densely leafy) densely hairy. Leaves persistent, gray-green; blades broadly lanceolate, faces woolly-hairy; proximalmost blades 3-8 × 2-6 cm, 2-3-pinnatifid, lobes linear (to 2 mm wide); cauline somewhat reduced, 2-3 × 0.8-1.2 cm; apices acute, faces hairy. Heads (sessile, clustered in glomerules) in (densely leafy) paniculiform to spiciform arrays 10-20(-30) × 1-4 cm. Involucres globose, 3-4.5 × 3-4.5 mm . Phyllaries (lanceolate, margins obscured by indument, hairs straight. Florets: pistillate 5-20; functionally staminate 12-25; corollas pale yellow (broadly tubular), ca. 2 mm, glabrous. Cypselae ellipsoid (faintly nerved), 1-1.5 mm, glabrous.

Flowering late spring-mid summer. Rocky or sandy soils of coastal beaches; 0-200 m; Calif.