Artemisia rigida

Last updated

Artemisia rigida
Artemisia rigida 3.jpg
Artemisia rigida at Banks Lake, Grant County Washington
Status TNC G5.svg
Secure  (NatureServe)
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Genus: Artemisia
Species:
A. rigida
Binomial name
Artemisia rigida
Synonyms [1]
  • Artemisia trifida var. rigidaNutt.
  • Seriphidium rigidum(Nutt.) W.A.Weber

Artemisia rigida is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common names scabland sagebrush [2] and stiff sagebrush. It is native to the northwestern United States, in Washington, Idaho, and Oregon. [3] It has been recorded in western Montana but these sightings may have been misidentifications. [4]

Contents

Description

Artemisia rigida is a small, spreading, deciduous shrub with many woody branches up to 40 centimeters long. The stems mature to gray and hairy and are often reddish during early growth. [2] The leaves are up to 4 centimeters long and trident-shaped. They are grayish in color from their coat of silvery hairs. The similar Artemisia tripartita leaf typically has shorter woolly hairs. The plant is "mildly" [2] to "pungently" [5] scented. The flower heads are somewhat bell-shaped and measure about half a centimeter wide. They contain 4 to 8 yellow-red to red florets. [2]

Range and Ecology

Artemisia rigida grows in harsh substrates where few other plants survive. The soil is generally very shallow and covers bedrock. The bedrock is always basalt, never granite. [6] The roots of the plant are within the shallow soil layer with some anchoring in rock fractures. There is also sometimes a layer of impermeable clay. The substrate commonly undergoes frost heaving, which breaks it up. On these unproductive sites, which occur in the Channeled Scablands, for example, this plant is a climax species. It is an indicator of scabland habitat. [4] In the Columbia Basin it often dominates regions with thin rocky soils, and has Sandberg's bluegrass as the main understory species along with various low herbaceous plants such as Viola trinervata and small Lomatium species. [7]

Artemisia rigida provides food for wildlife because it is often the only plant exposed as the snow melts in the spring on mostly barren landscapes. Livestock also like it, especially the seedheads. [4]

Related Research Articles

<i>Artemisia</i> (plant) Genus of flowering plants in the daisy family Asteraceae

Artemisia is a large, diverse genus of plants belonging to the daisy family Asteraceae, with between 200 and 400 species. Common names for various species in the genus include mugwort, wormwood, and sagebrush.

<i>Artemisia tridentata</i> Species of plant

Artemisia tridentata, commonly called big sagebrush, Great Basin sagebrush or (locally) simply sagebrush, is an aromatic shrub from the family Asteraceae, which grows in arid and semi-arid conditions, throughout a range of cold desert, steppe, and mountain habitats in the Intermountain West of North America. The vernacular name "sagebrush" is also used for several related members of the genus Artemisia, such as California sagebrush.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shrub–steppe</span>

Shrub-steppe is a type of low-rainfall natural grassland. While arid, shrub-steppes have sufficient moisture to support a cover of perennial grasses or shrubs, a feature which distinguishes them from deserts.

<i>Artemisia arbuscula</i> Species of flowering plant

Artemisia arbuscula is a North American species of sagebrush known by the common names little sagebrush, low sagebrush, or black sagebrush. It is native to the western United States from Washington, Oregon, and California east as far as Colorado and Wyoming. It grows in open, exposed habitat on dry, sterile soils high in rock and clay content.

<i>Artemisia bigelovii</i> Species of flowering plant

Artemisia bigelovii is a North American species of sagebrush known by the common name Bigelow sagebrush or flat sagebrush. It grows in the deserts of the southwestern United States.

<i>Artemisia nova</i> Species of flowering plant

Artemisia nova is a North American species of sagebrush, known by the common name black sagebrush. It is "one of the most common shrubs in the western United States".

<i>Artemisia spinescens</i> Species of flowering plant

Artemisia spinescens is a North American species of sagebrush in the sunflower family, known by the common name budsage.

<i>Astragalus purshii</i> Species of legume

Astragalus purshii is a species of milkvetch known by the common names woollypod milkvetch and Pursh's milkvetch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sagebrush</span> Index of plants with the same common name

Sagebrush is the common name of several woody and herbaceous species of plants in the genus Artemisia. The best known sagebrush is the shrub Artemisia tridentata. Sagebrushes are native to the North American west.

<i>Nestotus stenophyllus</i> Species of flowering plant

Nestotus stenophyllus is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name narrowleaf mock goldenweed. It was previously known as Stenotus stenophyllus. It is native to the western United States, especially the inland Pacific Northwest and northern Great Basin, where it grows in sagebrush habitat usually in rocky soil.

<i>Lomatium ochocense</i> Species of flowering plant

Lomatium ochocense is a rare species of flowering plant in the carrot family known by the common name Ochoco lomatium. It is endemic to Oregon, where it is limited to the Ochoco Mountains of Crook County.

<i>Artemisia papposa</i> Species of flowering plant

Artemisia papposa is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common names Owyhee sage, Owyhee sagebrush, and fuzzy sagebrush. It is native to the Snake River Plain and surrounding areas in the northwestern United States, occurring in southern Idaho, eastern Oregon, and northern Nevada.

<i>Artemisia filifolia</i> Species of flowering plant

Artemisia filifolia, known by common names including sand sagebrush, sand sage and sandhill sage, is a species of flowering plant in the aster family. It is native to North America, where it occurs from Nevada east to South Dakota and from there south to Arizona, Chihuahua, and Texas.

<i>Artemisia frigida</i> Species of flowering plant

Artemisia frigida is a widespread species of flowering plant in the aster family, which is known as the sunflower family. It is native to Europe, Asia, and much of North America. In parts of the north-central and northeastern United States it is an introduced species.

<i>Artemisia pedatifida</i> Species of flowering plant

Artemisia pedatifida is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common names birdfoot sagebrush and matted sagewort. It is native to a section of the west-central United States encompassing parts of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado, where it occurs on the high plains.

<i>Artemisia pygmaea</i> Species of flowering plant

Artemisia pygmaea is a North American species of sagebrush in the aster family known by the common name pygmy sagebrush.

<i>Artemisia tripartita</i> Species of flowering plant

Artemisia tripartita is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common name threetip sagebrush. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to Nevada and Montana to Colorado. It covers about 8.4 million acres of the Rocky Mountains and Great Basin.

Astragalus anisus is a species of flowering plant in the legume family known by the common name Gunnison milkvetch. It is endemic to Colorado in the United States, where it is limited to the Gunnison Basin of Gunnison and Saguache Counties.

<i>Astragalus ripleyi</i> Species of legume

Astragalus ripleyi is a species of flowering plant in the legume family known by the common name Ripley's milkvetch. It is native to southern Colorado and northern New Mexico in the United States.

<i>Phlox douglasii</i> Species of flowering plant

Phlox douglasii, common name tufted phlox or Columbia phlox, is a species of perennial herb belonging to the family Polemoniaceae. In the past it has been mistakenly included within the species Phlox caespitosa.

References

  1. The Plant List Artemisia rigida (Nutt.) A.Gray
  2. 1 2 3 4 Artemisia rigida. Flora of North America.
  3. Biota of North America Program 2014 county distribution map
  4. 1 2 3 McWilliams, Jack. 2003. Artemisia rigida. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory.
  5. Artemisia rigida. USDA FS International Institute of Tropical Forestry.
  6. Daubenmire, R. (1982). The distribution of Artemisia rigidia in Washington: A challenge to ecology and geology. Archived June 7, 2012, at the Wayback Machine Northwest Science 56(3) 162.
  7. Native Grasslands and Shrub-steppe. Archived November 16, 2011, at the Wayback Machine USFWS Hanford Reach National Monument.