Artemisia frigidaWilld.

prairie sagewort

WFO wfo-0000113984 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Artemisia frigida, photographed by Shane Johnson
fig. a Shane Johnson, CC0 1.0 / 2022-06-06 / obs. 204757098
Artemisia frigida, photographed by Braden J. Judson
fig. b Braden J. Judson, CC0 1.0 / obs. 205920570
Artemisia frigida, photographed by Shane Johnson
fig. c Shane Johnson, CC0 1.0 / obs. 204751260
Artemisia frigida, photographed by Shane Johnson
fig. d Shane Johnson, CC0 1.0 / obs. 204736726
Artemisia frigida, photographed by Shane Johnson
fig. e Shane Johnson, CC0 1.0 / obs. 204702475
Artemisia frigida, photographed by Shane Johnson
fig. f Shane Johnson, CC0 1.0 / obs. 204679288
Artemisia frigida, photographed by machaut2
fig. g machaut2, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203433161
Artemisia frigida, photographed by Shane Johnson
fig. h Shane Johnson, CC0 1.0 / obs. 204528164

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 47 botanical countries

Regions where Artemisia frigida is native: Altay, Buryatiya, China North-Central, China South-Central, Chita, Inner Mongolia, Irkutsk, Kazakhstan, Krasnoyarsk, Magadan, Manchuria, Mongolia, Qinghai, Tadzhikistan, Tibet, West Siberia, Xinjiang, Yakutiya, East European Russia, Alaska, Alberta, Arizona, British Columbia, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Manitoba, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Brunswick, New Mexico, North Dakota, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Ontario, Québec, Saskatchewan, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Yukon AltayBuryatiyaChina North-CentralChina South-CentralChitaInner MongoliaIrkutskKazakhstanKrasnoyarskMagadanManchuriaMongoliaQinghaiTadzhikistanTibetWest SiberiaXinjiangYakutiyaEast European RussiaAlaskaAlbertaArizonaBritish ColumbiaColoradoIdahoIllinoisIowaKansasManitobaMinnesotaMontanaNebraskaNew BrunswickNew MexicoNorth DakotaNorthwest TerritoriesNunavutOntarioQuébecSaskatchewanSouth DakotaTexasUtahWashingtonWisconsinWyomingYukon
Native distribution of Artemisia frigida, 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
Alaska ASK NORTHERN AMERICA
Alberta ABT
Arizona ARI
British Columbia BRC
Colorado COL
Idaho IDA
Illinois ILL
Iowa IOW
Kansas KAN
Manitoba MAN
Minnesota MIN
Montana MNT
Nebraska NEB
New Brunswick NBR
New Mexico NWM
North Dakota NDA
Northwest Territories NWT
Nunavut NUN
Ontario ONT
Québec QUE
Saskatchewan SAS
South Dakota SDA
Texas TEX
Utah UTA
Washington WAS
Wisconsin WIS
Wyoming WYO
Yukon YUK
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Buryatiya BRY
China North-Central CHN
China South-Central CHC
Chita CTA
Inner Mongolia CHI
Irkutsk IRK
Kazakhstan KAZ
Krasnoyarsk KRA
Magadan MAG
Manchuria CHM
Mongolia MON
Qinghai CHQ
Tadzhikistan TZK
Tibet CHT
West Siberia WSB
Xinjiang CHX
Yakutiya YAK
East European Russia RUE EUROPE

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.

Flowering 90 in flower of 436 examined

Peak flowering in Aug. Each bar is the share of Artemisia frigida observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 90 of 436 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. One month has fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for it. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 5 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 frigida subsp. frigida
  • Artemisia frigida var. atropurpurea
  • Artemisia frigida var. frigida
  • Artemisia frigida var. gmeliniana (Besser) Besser
  • Artemisia frigida var. williamsiae S.L.Welsh

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.