Artemisia frigida (Pasture Sage) - photos and description
Basal leaves in the above photo
General: Tufted plants with woody bases. Upper stems are woolly and silver in colour. Foliage strongly aromatic - a strong sage aroma.
Flowers: Flower heads grow in panicles, are drooping, flower heads are discoid and yellow in colour. The calyx is woolly. We measured a flower head to 3 mm long.
Leaves: Leaves are alternate, and in dense clusters at stem tips. Leaves are pinnately divided into narrow lobes. The leaf highlighted in photo above was 18 mm long by 14 mm wide. Leaves are woolly and silver in colour.
Height: Height listed in Budd's Flora to 50 cm, we measured plants to 54 cm tall.
Habitat: Prairies.
Abundance: Very common.
Origin: Native.
When and where photographed: These photos were taken August 20th, prairie hillside in the Qu'Appelle Valley 30 km north of Regina, SK, and August 22nd, grassland, about 40 km east of our home in Regina, SK.