Subshrubs, 10-60 cm (rounded), aromatic. Stems relatively numerous, ascending or prostrate, gray, simple or branched (slender, wandlike, soft, bases woody and brittle), densely canescent. Leaves cauline, gray-green; blades linear-oblong, 3-5 × 1-2 cm, mostly 3-lobed (lobes 1-2 mm wide), faces gray-hairy. Heads (usually erect, sometimes nodding) in (leafy) paniculiform arrays 10-25 × 3-5(-7) cm. Involucres broadly campanulate, 2.5 × 4-4.5 mm. Phyllaries broadly ovate, densely hairy. Florets: pistillate 0; bisexual 20-50; corollas pale yellow, 1.2-1.5 mm, glandular. Cypselae (light brown) ellipsoid (ribbed), 0.5 mm, resinous.

Flowering mid-late summer. Rocky slopes, often fog-shrouded hillsides; 0-100 m; Calif.

Artemisia nesiotica is known only from the Channel Islands of California. It differs from the closely related A. californica by its shorter stature, wider leaf lobes, and larger heads.