The genus consists of annual, biennial, and perennial herbs; subshrubs and shrubs 

 of various sizes ranging from less than 2 dm up to 4.5 m. These plants contain volatile 

 oils. All are aromatic, some strongly so; most emit a pronounced characteristic "sage" 

 smell when the herbage is crushed. The glabrous to tomentose leaves are borne alter- 

 nately. Leaves are entire to variously lobed or dissected. 



Sagebrush flowers are very small and are borne in numerous small heads commonly 

 arranged into panicles or sometimes racemes or spikelike inflorescences but never into 

 cymes (see figure 5, page 7) . Each head has a cuplike involucre made up of 2 to 4 

 series of dry, papery, closely overlapping bracts. Depending on the species, the heads 

 contain either both ray and disc flowers or only disc flowers (fig. 3) . The ray flow- 

 ers, when present, are pistillate and fertile and have 2-cleft, more or less exserted 

 styles. The disc flowers are perfect and fertile or sometimes sterile and each has a 

 tubular to trumpet -shaped corolla with 5 stamens united by their anthers around the 

 normally 2-cleft style. The ovary develops into a glabrous or resinous-granul if erous 

 achene. Pappus is lacking in the vast majority of the species. Although basic chromo- 

 some numbers of a; = 6, 7, 8, and 9 are known, a: = 9 is the most common base number 

 (Ward 1953; Kawatani and Ohno 1964; Wiens and Richter 1966]. Polyploidy is common in 

 the genus. 



Natural hybridization among various taxa of western sagebrush seems to be wide- 

 spread and common (Beetle 1960; Hanks and others 1973). Beetle (1960) believes several 

 species and subspecies have originated through hybridization and subsequent polyploidy. 



A number of Artemisia species and their subspecies are valuable browse plants, es- 

 pecially on winter and early spring ranges. These include A. tvidentata^ A. nova, A. 

 arbuscula, A. cana, A. spinescens, A. frigida, A. filifolia, A. longiloha, A. higelovii, 

 and A. vothvockii. These and others are also useful for controlling soil erosion. 

 Artemisia species are also browse plants of considerable importance in steppes of 

 Eurasia and North Africa (Polyakov 1961) . Larin (1956) stated "representatives of 

 Artemisia have the greatest fodder importance of all the Compositae .... They clearly 

 dominate the desert (of the U.S.S.R.) both in their quantity in the vegetative cover 

 and in their fodder importance." Artemisia is essential in the maintenance of sage 

 grouse populations (Braun and others 1977) as well as population" of other birds and 

 small animals. Members of the herbaceous Artemisia ludovicianL :)mplex are particularly 

 good for soil stabilization (Monsen 1975) . 



Some species {A. mexicana, A. absinthium, A. cind) have long bee., used medicinally, 

 mainly as a remedy for roundworms and are thus commonly known as wormwood. Other 



Figure 3. — A ray flower 

 and two diso flowers 



(left) from an Artemisia 

 bigelovii flower head 



(12X). 



4 



