Artemisia norvegica Fries var. saxatilis (Bess.) Jeps. 

 Boreal wormwood 



A. DESCRIPTION 



1. General description: This is an herbaceous "sagebrush" or 

 "wormwood" in the Asteraceae (sunflower family) . The 

 pinnately dissected leaves are mostly basal with leaves 

 becoming progressively smaller up the stem. The flower heads 

 are relatively few and large compared to other species in the 

 genus. 



2. Technical description (quoted from Cronquist 1955): 



Perennial from a branching caudex, 2-6 dm tall; herbage 

 from loosely and copiously villous to essentially 

 glabrous; basal leaves tufted and persistent, petiolate, 

 the broad, pinnately dissected blade 2-10 cm long, the 

 ultimate segments narrow and acute; cauline leaves 

 progressively reduced, becoming sessile; inflorescence 

 spiciform or loosely racemiform to narrowly paniculif orm; 

 heads relatively large and many-flowered, the disk up to 

 1 cm wide, the involucre 4-7 mm high, with glabrous or 

 moderately wooly-villous, prominently dark margined 

 bracts; disk corollas long-hairy near their junction with 

 the commonly glabrous achene, often more or less densely 

 villous-hirsute above as well; receptacles hairless. 



3. Diagnostic characters: Differs from other perennial 

 herbaceous species of Artemisia in Montana by 1) hairless 

 receptacles, 2) large flower heads, and 3) leaves which are 

 primarily basal and generally highly (2-3 times) divided. 



B. GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION 



1. Species range: Circumboreal ; var. saxatilis is in North 

 America, south in the mountains to California and Colorado 

 (Cronquist 1955) . 



2. Distribution in Montana: The species is known in the state 

 only from historical collections from Glacier National Park 

 and the Bridger Range. 



3. Occurrences on the Gallatin National Forest: This element 

 was not relocated in the Bridger Mountains, nor was it seen 

 elsewhere on the Forest. It is reported in the Bridgers based 

 on a collection deposited at the herbarium at the University 

 of Washington, Seattle (WTU) . Dr. J. Rumely (MONT) told me he 

 thought this species occurred in the Bridgers in the lower 

 krumholtz zone of the glacial cirque above Fairy Lake. The 

 entire cirque was searched on three dates but only the common 

 Artemisia micbauxiana was found. At early stages, before the 

 flowering stems elongate, this species might be mistaken for 

 A. norvegica. In the fall, the historical collection was 



11 



