Single Record

Participant Info

Species
Artemisia frigida
Family
Asteraceae
CommonName
fringed sagewort, estafiata, arctic sage, pasture sage
Presence
yes
Status
native
EarliestDate
1912
LatestDate
2021
Ecosystem
basin, shrubland, foothill, montane, subalpine, tundra, urban
Geobotanical
SSawatch, Garitas, SSanjuans, Culebras, NCristos, UBasin, LBasin
Counties
Alamosa, Conejos, Costilla, Hinsdale, Mineral, Rio Grande, Saguache, Archuleta
Passes
Cochetopa, La Manga
WildlifePreserves
Baca, Great Sand Dunes
Other Localities
Alamosa (town), La Botica, Del Norte
Comments
Fringed sagewort is perhaps the most common artemisia of the Watershed, occupying all ecosystems and geobotanical regions. Artemisia frigida has adapted to urban habitats, and persists in lawns, street verges, and alleyways. It is the shapeshifter of artemisias, taking a tricky range of forms, from young leaves less than an inch high, to single stems, to hefty bushes a foot and one half tall. Its ternate leaf segments can be bunched together or spread widely apart. Its USA range is the Intermountain West, the Rocky Mountains from north to south, and the northern Great Plains. It follows the Rio Grande drainage through New Mexico to the Mexican border, but no farther. Note that in his three-year survey of flora of the South San Juan Mountain Wilderness area, Sharples found it only rarely (Sharples, 2017).