Single Record

Participant Info

Species
Artemisia campestris subsp. caudata [Artemisia campestris var. caudata] [Artemisia caudata] [Artemisia forwoodii] [Oligosporus caudatus]
Family
Asteraceae
CommonName
field sagewort
Presence
yes
Status
native
EarliestDate
1974
LatestDate
2003
Ecosystem
foothill, montane
Geobotanical
SSawatch, Garitas, SSanjuans
Counties
Conejos, Hinsdale, Mineral, Rio Grande, Saguache
Passes
WildlifePreserves
Brown Lakes, Great Sand Dunes
Other Localities
Comments
This is the lower-elevation subspecies or variety of Artemisia campestris, distinguished by being single stemmed and biennial with a rosette of basal leaves the first year that are withered by time of flowering the second year. Ackerfield (2022) locates it in Colorado "on the eastern plains" at an elevation range—4,000'-5,700'— that is lower than the San Luis Valley. SEINet, however, shows New Mexico collections from the Rio Grande drainage counties of Rio Arriba, Taos, Cplfax, Sandoval, Bernallilo, and Torrance, at elevations ranging from 6,610' to 9,800'. Meanwhile Heil et al. (2013) state that all collections of Artemisia campestris from the San Juan drainage belong to subsp. pacifica. Determined as A. campestris subsp. caudata (or synonyms thereof), voucheers have been collected a dozen or so times from the Watershed, all from the west side of the Valley: e.g., La Jara canyon (Conejos Co, 1984), 7 miles west of Del Norte (Rio Grande Co, 2003), west of Villa Grove (Saguache Co, 1998), and 10 miles east of Wolf Creek pass (Mineral Co, 1974). Individual plants may be tricky to determine. The 2021 photorecord from near Poso cpgd (Saguache Co, elev. 9,455'). superficially showing features of subsp. caudata, instead may show multiple stems, with one stem just well developed and the others nascent, and may show some leaves just withered due to early frost. In the USA, the distribution of subsp. caudata covers Montana, Colorado, New Mexico, and nearly all states eastward.