Artemisia pycnocephala (Less.) DC.
Family: Asteraceae
Beach Wormwood
Artemisia pycnocephala image
Charles Webber  

Perennials, 30-70(-100) cm, faintly aromatic. Stems usually 10+ (rising beyond basal leaves, decumbent), whitish gray, (ca. 5 mm diam., densely leafy) densely hairy. Leaves persistent, gray-green; blades broadly lanceolate, faces woolly-hairy; proximalmost blades 3-8 × 2-6 cm, 2-3-pinnatifid, lobes linear (to 2 mm wide); cauline somewhat reduced, 2-3 × 0.8-1.2 cm; apices acute, faces hairy. Heads (sessile, clustered in glomerules) in (densely leafy) paniculiform to spiciform arrays 10-20(-30) × 1-4 cm. Involucres globose, 3-4.5 × 3-4.5 mm . Phyllaries (lanceolate, margins obscured by indument, hairs straight. Florets: pistillate 5-20; functionally staminate 12-25; corollas pale yellow (broadly tubular), ca. 2 mm, glabrous. Cypselae ellipsoid (faintly nerved), 1-1.5 mm, glabrous.

Flowering late spring-mid summer. Rocky or sandy soils of coastal beaches; 0-200 m; Calif.

Artemisia pycnocephala image
Charles Webber  
Artemisia pycnocephala image
Charles Webber  
Artemisia pycnocephala image
Charles Webber  
Artemisia pycnocephala image
Charles Webber  
Artemisia pycnocephala image
Zoya Akulova  
Artemisia pycnocephala image
Zoya Akulova  
Artemisia pycnocephala image
Zoya Akulova