Forked Wormwood

Artemisia furcata extends from the islands of the Bering Sea into southern and interior Alaska, parts of Canada (disjunct in British Columbia and the northernmost Rocky Mountains of Alberta), and on Mt. Rainier in Washington. The array of names applied to A. furcata shows the taxonomic confusion arising from a myriad of morphologic variants that may indicate introgression with other species.

Perennials, 7–35 cm (not cespitose), faintly aromatic (not rhizomatous, taproots stout, caudices simple or branched, branches clothed with persistent leaf bases). Stems (flowering) 1–5, erect, light brown, simple, strigillose or glabrate. Leaves basal (in rosettes) and cauline, gray-green; blades oval, 2–10(–12) cm (basal) or 1–1.5 × 0.4–0.6 cm (cauline), 1–3-palmately lobed, faces sparsely to densely strigillose. Heads (erect or spreading, some nodding, peduncles 0 or to 30 mm) in racemiform or spiciform arrays 1–6 × 1–2 cm. Involucres broadly campanulate, 3–6 × 4.5–8 mm. Phyllaries (greenish, color often obscured by indument) ovate or lanceolate (margins dark brown), sparsely to densely tomentose. Florets: pistillate 6–7; bisexual 15–26; corollas mostly yellow, sometimes red-tinged, 1–2 mm, glabrous or glabrate. Cypselae oblong (ribbed), 1–1.5 mm, glabrous. 2n = 18, 36, 72, 90.

Artemisia furcata var. heterophylla (Besser) Hultén; A. hyperborea Rydberg; A. tacomensis Rydberg; A. trifurcata Stephani ex Sprengel

Artemisia furcata, the forked wormwood, is an Asian and North American species of plants in the sunflower family found in cold regions at high elevations or high latitudes. It is native to Canada (British Columbia, Alberta, + all 3 Arctic territories), the United States (Alaska + Washington), eastern Russia (Siberia and Russian Far East), Kazakhstan, and Japan.

Artemisia furcata is a perennial up to 35 cm (14 inches) tall, not generally forming clumps. Leaves are gray-green, some forming a rosette at the base, others attached to the stem. Heads are small but numerous, yellow. The species is found in tundra and on talus slopes.