Perennials, 50-170(-200) cm, aromatic (rhizomes woody, coarse). Stems usually 10+, erect, light brown, simple, usually glabrous. Leaves cauline (sessile), bicolor (white and dark green); blades lanceolate, 5-10(-15) × 1-5 cm (bases strongly tapered, attenuate), coarsely and irregularly lobed, faces tomentose (abaxial) or glabrous (adaxial). Heads (erect) in crowded (proximally leafy), paniculiform or racemiform arrays 17-30 × (2-)4-5 cm (lateral branches stiff, erect). Involucres narrowly turbinate or globose, 1.5-2.5 × 1-1.5 mm. Phyllaries (straw-colored to yellow-green, shiny) lanceolate, glabrous or sparsely hairy. Florets: pistillate 2-5; bisexual 2-7; corollas yellow, 1.5-3 mm, glabrous. Cypselae ellipsoid, 0.8-1.5 mm, glabrous. 2n = 18.

Flowering mid summer-fall. Coastal habitats, often along roads or drainages; 0-200 m; B.C.; Calif., Oreg., Wash.

Artemisia suksdorfii is similar morphologically to A. douglasiana; it has more and smaller heads, and glabrous phyllaries. The two species hybridize where their ranges overlap.