Coastal Wormwood

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.

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.

Artemisia heterophylla Nuttall, Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., n. s. 7: 400. 1841, not Besser 1834; A. vulgaris Linnaeus var. littoralis Suksdorf

Artemisia suksdorfii Piper, Bull. Torrey Club 28: 42. 1901
Artemisia hcleroplnlla Nutt. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. II. 400. 1841. Not .4. heterophylla Besser.
1834. Artemisia vulgaris californica A. Gray, Syn. Fl. N. Am. 1^: 373, in part. 1884. Artemisia vulgaris liloralis Suksd. Deuts. Bot. Monats. 18: 98. 1900.
A stout tall perennial herb, with a rootstock; stem usually simple, 1-1.5 m. high, terete, striate, sparingly pubescent when young, soon glabrate; leaves many, lanceolate or ovatelanceolate, the lower coarsely dentate or lobed, with few lanceolate divisions, 6-10 cm. long, acuminate, green and glabrate above, densely white-tomentose beneath ; heads very numerous in a dense elongate panicle 6-8 dm. long; involucre oblong or subcylindric, about 4 mm. high, scarcely 2 nun. broad, only slightly floccose when young, soon glabrous, yellow and shining; bracts about 10, in 3-4 series, the outer lanceolate, acute, half as long as the innermost, the inner oblong or elliptic, obtuse, scarious-margined ; ray-flowers 3-6; corollas 2 mm. long; disk-flowers 3-6; corollas 3 mm. long; achenes 1.5 mm. long.
Type locality: Fairhaven, Washington.
Distribution: British Columbia to northern California along the coast.

Artemisia suksdorfii is a North American species of sagebrush in the sunflower family. It is known by the common names coastal mugwort, coastal wormwood, and Suksdorf sagewort. It is native to coastal regions from British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and northern California as far south as Sonoma County, with isolated populations on Santa Catalina Island in Los Angeles County.

Artemisia suksdorfii grows in coastal drainages and other habitat near the ocean. This is a rhizomatous perennial herb producing many erect stems one half to two meters in height. The unbranched stems are brownish and have woody bases. The leaves are narrow and lobed, green and hairless on top and white and woolly underneath. The inflorescence is generally spike-like, up to 30 centimeters long and a few wide. It contains many clusters of small flower heads with shiny yellow-green phyllaries and yellow disc and pistillate florets. The fruit is a tiny achene less than a millimeter long.

The species is named for German-American botanist Wilhelm Nikolaus Suksdorf (1850-1932).