''Artemisia norvegica'' is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common names alpine sagewort, boreal sagewort, mountain sagewort, Norwegian mugwort, arctic wormwood, and spruce wormwood.Taylor, Jane E. (2006)
''Artemisia norvegica''.
In: Fire Effects Information System, nline U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory. Retrieved 11-11-2011. It is found in cold locations in

Eurasia Eurasia ( , ) is a continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. According to some geographers, Physical geography, physiographically, Eurasia is a single supercontinent. The concept of Europe and Asia as distinct continents d ...

(

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Ural Mountains The Ural Mountains ( ),; , ; , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range in Eurasia that runs north–south mostly through Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the river Ural (river), Ural and northwestern Kazakhstan.

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

) and high

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

s and high

latitude In geography, latitude is a geographic coordinate system, geographic coordinate that specifies the north-south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from −90° at t ...

s in

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(

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Description

''Artemisia norvegica'' is a perennial

subshrub A subshrub (Latin ''suffrutex'') or undershrub is either a small shrub (e.g. prostrate shrubs) or a perennial that is largely herbaceous but slightly woody at the base (e.g. garden pink and florist's chrysanthemum). The term is often interch ...

growing tall with erect stems growing from a

caudex A caudex (: caudices) of a plant is a stem, but the term is also used to mean a rootstock and particularly a basal stem structure from which new growth arises.pages 456 and 695 In the strict sense of the term, meaning a stem, "caudex" is most ...

and

taproot A taproot is a large, central, and dominant root from which other roots sprout laterally. Typically a taproot is somewhat straight and very thick, is tapering in shape, and grows directly downward. In some plants, such as the carrot, the taproot ...

. Most of the leaves are located low on the stems and are long. The

nodding A nod of the head is a gesture in which the head is tilted in alternating up and down arcs along the sagittal plane. In many cultures, it is most commonly, but not universally, used to indicate agreement, acceptance, or acknowledgement. To in ...

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

bears

flower heads A pseudanthium (; : pseudanthia) is an inflorescence that resembles a flower. The word is sometimes used for other structures that are neither a true flower nor a true inflorescence. Examples of pseudanthia include flower heads, composite flowers ...

containing ray and

disc floret Asteraceae () is a large family of flowering plants that consists of over 32,000 known species in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. The number of species in Asteraceae is rivaled only by the Orchidaceae, and which is the larger fa ...

s. The

ray florets Asteraceae () is a large family of flowering plants that consists of over 32,000 known species in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. The number of species in Asteraceae is rivaled only by the Orchidaceae, and which is the larger fa ...

are female with no functioning male parts and the

s at the center are

bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

. The plant reproduces by seed and may spread vegetatively by sending out

stolon In biology, a stolon ( from Latin ''wikt:stolo, stolō'', genitive ''stolōnis'' – "branch"), also known as a runner, is a horizontal connection between parts of an organism. It may be part of the organism, or of its skeleton. Typically, animal ...

s. The seeds are dispersed on the wind.

Distribution and habitat

''Artemisia norvegica'' grows in

subalpine Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...

and

alpine climate Alpine climate is the typical climate for elevations above the tree line, where trees fail to grow due to cold. This climate is also referred to as a mountain climate or highland climate. Definition There are multiple definitions of alpine cli ...

s and in

Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

habitat such as

tundra In physical geography, a tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. There are three regions and associated types of tundra: #Arctic, Arctic, Alpine tundra, Alpine, and #Antarctic ...

. It can be found in

moraine A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris (regolith and Rock (geology), rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a gla ...

s, fell field habitat, alpine meadows, and areas dominated by

grass Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family (biology), family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and spe ...

es and

sedges The Cyperaceae () are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large; botanists have described some 5,500 known species in about 90 generathe largest being the "true sedges" (genu ...

. In

it occurs on the

fjord In physical geography, a fjord (also spelled fiord in New Zealand English; ) is a long, narrow sea inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Antarctica, the Arctic, and surrounding landmasses of the n ...

s of

Prince William Sound Prince William Sound ( Sugpiaq: ''Suungaaciq'') is a sound off the Gulf of Alaska on the south coast of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is located on the east side of the Kenai Peninsula. Its largest port is Valdez, at the southern terminus of the ...

alongside larkspur monkshood (''Aconitum delphiniifolium''), Eschscholtz's buttercup (''Ranunculus eschscholtzii''), and Canadian burnet (''Sanguisorba canadensis''). It grows on Alaskan mountains such as the

Kenai Mountains The Kenai Mountains ( Dena'ina: ''Yaghanen Dghili'') are a mountain range in the U.S. state of Alaska. They extend northeast from the southern end of the Kenai Peninsula to the Chugach Mountains, and have an average elevation of 3,000 to 5,00 ...

with grasses, sedges, and

willows Willows, also called sallows and osiers, of the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 350 species (plus numerous hybrids) of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions. Most species are known ...

. In the

alpine tundra Alpine tundra is a type of natural region or biome that does not contain trees because it is at high elevation, with an associated harsh climate. As the latitude of a location approaches the poles, the threshold elevation for alpine tundra gets ...

of the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in great-circle distance, straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Can ...

it grows in snowbeds and on

turf Sod is the upper layer of turf that is harvested for transplanting. Turf consists of a variable thickness of a soil medium that supports a community of turfgrasses. In British and Australian English, sod is more commonly known as ''turf'', ...

made up of blackroot sedge (''Carex elynoides'') and alpine clover (''Trifolium dasyphyllum''). It occurs in the mountains of the

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories is a federal Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada. At a land area of approximately and a 2021 census population of 41,070, it is the second-largest and the most populous of Provinces and territorie ...

among

lichens A lichen ( , ) is a hybrid colony (biology), colony of algae or cyanobacteria living symbiotically among hypha, filaments of multiple fungus species, along with yeasts and bacteria embedded in the cortex or "skin", in a mutualism (biology), m ...

and grasses such as arctic bluegrass (''Poa arctica''). ''Artemisia norvegica'' is food for a number of animals, such as

mountain goat The mountain goat (''Oreamnos americanus''), also known as the Rocky Mountain goat, is a cloven-footed mammal that is endemic to the remote and rugged mountainous areas of western North America. A subalpine to truly alpine species, it is a s ...

s, which eat it during the summer in Alaska, as well as

Sitka black-tailed deer The Sitka deer or Sitka black-tailed deer (''Odocoileus hemionus sitkensis'') is a subspecies of mule deer (''Odocoileus hemionus''), similar to the Columbian black-tailed subspecies (''O. h. colombianus''). Their name originates from Sitka, A ...

and

hoary marmot The hoary marmot (''Marmota caligata'') is a species of marmot that inhabits the mountains of northwest North America. Hoary marmots live near the tree line on slopes with Graminoid, grasses and forbs to eat and rocky areas for cover. It is the ...

s. ''Artemisia norvegica'' is a

pioneer species Pioneer species are resilient species that are the first to colonize barren environments, or to repopulate disrupted biodiverse steady-state ecosystems as part of ecological succession. Various kinds of events can create good conditions for pi ...

in the primary phase of

ecological succession Ecological succession is the process of how species compositions change in an Community (ecology), ecological community over time. The two main categories of ecological succession are primary succession and secondary succession. Primary successi ...

in disturbed areas, such as plains scoured by flooding. It has been known to colonize denuded soil in vehicle tracks. It was used to revegetate habitat disturbed during the construction of the

Trail Ridge Road Trail Ridge Road is the name for the stretch of U.S. Highway 34 (Colorado), U.S. Highway 34 that traverses Rocky Mountain National Park from Estes Park, Colorado in the east to Grand Lake, Colorado in the west. Together with the connecting Be ...

in Colorado.

Subspecies

Three subspecies are accepted. * ''Artemisia norvegica'' subsp. ''norvegica'' – Norway, northern and eastern European Russia, and western Siberia * ''Artemisia norvegica'' subsp. ''saxatilis'' (Besser) H.M.Hall & Clem. – eastern Siberia to Japan, the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, western Canada, and the western United States * ''Artemisia norvegica'' var. ''scotica'' – northwestern Scotland

References

External links

Alaska Wildflowers, ''Artemisia norvegica'' ssp. ''saxatilis'' (Besser) H.M. Hall & Clem.
with 11 photos
Oneline Atlas of the British & Irish Flora: ''Artemisia norvegica (''Norwegian Mugwort)
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1773677 norvegica Flora of Norway Flora of the Northwestern United States Flora of the Russian Far East Flora of Scotland Flora of Siberia Flora of Subarctic America Flora of Western Canada Flora of California Flora of the Rocky Mountains Flora of the Sierra Nevada (United States) Plants described in 1817 Flora without expected TNC conservation status