Artemisia cana | |
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Silver sagebrush in Dinosaur Provincial Park | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
(unranked): | Angiosperms |
(unranked): | Eudicots |
(unranked): | Asterids |
Order: | Asterales |
Family: | Asteraceae |
Genus: | Artemisia |
Species: | A. cana |
Binomial name | |
Artemisia cana Pursh [1] |
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Subspecies | |
Artemisia cana is a species of sagebrush native to western and central North America, having three subspecies.[3] It known by many common names, including silver sagebrush,[2][3] sticky sagebrush, silver wormwood,[2] hoary sagebrush, and dwarf sagebrush.[3] While these names apply to the species in general, there are others for each subspecies: plains silver sagebrush applies only to the autonymous subspecies Artemisia cana subsp. cana; Bolander silver sagebrush applies to A. c. subsp. bolanderi; and mountain silver sagebrush applies to A. c. subsp. viscidula.[3] The type specimen was described informally by its collector, Meriwether Lewis (collected on October 1st 1804, in the vicinity of Centinel Creek in South Dakota, during the epic Lewis and Clark Expedition), in the following passage from Original Journals of Lewis and Clark, edited by Thwaites in 1904 :
"On these hills many aromatic herbs are seen; resembling in taste, smel [ sic ] and appearance, the sage, hysop, wormwood, southernwood and two other herbs which are strangers to me the one resembling the camphor in taste and smell, rising to the hight of 2 or 3 feet; the other about the same size, has a long narrow, smo[o]th, soft leaf of an agreeable smel [ sic ] and flavor; of this last the A[n]telope is very fond; they feed on it, and perfume the hair of their foreheads and necks with it by rubing [ sic ] against it." [6]
Silver sagebrush is an aromatic shrub found in grasslands, floodplains and montane forests.[7] It generally reaches 50-150cm in height, with examples west of the Continental Divide typically being shorter than those east of the divide.[8] The leaves have a narrow blade shape, are evergreen, grey-green in colour, and have a distinct aroma.[8]
Artemisia cana is native to the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba and the American states of Alaska, Oregon, California, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, North and South Dakota, Nebraska and Minnesota.[2][9]