Artemisia canaPursh

silver sagebrush

WFO wfo-0000041928 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Artemisia cana, photographed by Eric Lamb
fig. a Eric Lamb, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-17 / obs. 205146690
Artemisia cana, photographed by Anne C Lewis
fig. b Anne C Lewis, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 187275695
Artemisia cana, photographed by Jay Pruett
fig. c Jay Pruett, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 166913537
Artemisia cana, photographed by Jay Pruett
fig. d Jay Pruett, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 175087314
Artemisia cana, photographed by John Gaskin
fig. e John Gaskin, CC0 1.0 / obs. 163857835
Artemisia cana, photographed by Eric Lamb
fig. f Eric Lamb, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 160014048
Artemisia cana, photographed by Tim Messick
fig. g Tim Messick, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 154783629
Artemisia cana, photographed by Daniel Atha
fig. h Daniel Atha, CC0 1.0 / obs. 145985476

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 17 botanical countries

Regions where Artemisia cana is native: Alberta, Arizona, British Columbia, California, Colorado, Idaho, Manitoba, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, Saskatchewan, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming AlbertaArizonaBritish ColumbiaCaliforniaColoradoIdahoManitobaMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew MexicoNorth DakotaOregonSaskatchewanSouth DakotaUtahWyoming
Native distribution of Artemisia cana, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Alberta ABT NORTHERN AMERICA
Arizona ARI
British Columbia BRC
California CAL
Colorado COL
Idaho IDA
Manitoba MAN
Montana MNT
Nebraska NEB
Nevada NEV
New Mexico NWM
North Dakota NDA
Oregon ORE
Saskatchewan SAS
South Dakota SDA
Utah UTA
Wyoming WYO

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 15 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Artemisia argilosa Beetle
  • Artemisia bolanderi A.Gray
  • Artemisia cana var. cana
  • Artemisia cana var. viscidula Osterh.
  • Artemisia columbiensis Nutt.
  • Artemisia tridentata subsp. bolanderi H.M.Hall & Clem.
  • Artemisia tridentata var. bolanderi (A.Gray) McMinn
  • Artemisia viscidula Rydb.
  • Seriphidium argilosum (Beetle) K.Bremer & Humphries
  • Seriphidium bolanderi (A.Gray) Y.R.Ling
  • Seriphidium canum (Pursh) W.A.Weber
  • Seriphidium canum subsp. bolanderi (A.Gray) W.A.Weber
  • Seriphidium canum subsp. canum
  • Seriphidium canum subsp. viscidulum (Osterh.) W.A.Weber
  • Seriphidium canum var. viscidulum (Osterh.) Y.R.Ling

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.