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Artemisia ludoviciana ssp. albula (Silver Wormwood) - A low, spreading fine textured sub-shrub or perennial that grows to 2 feet tall by 3 to 5 feet wide, spreading slowly by rhizomes. It has white-gray tomentose stems and aromatic narrow 1-to-2-inch long pinnatifid (pinnately divided, but not all the way down to the central axis) leaves that are grey-green on the upper surface and nearly white below with revolute margins. At the tips of the stems in midsummer are produced narrow flower clusters with many small (about 1/4 inch wide) yellowish nodding flower heads - while interesting, the flowers are not showy.
Plant in full to bright part sun in a well-drained soil and irrigate very little - this is a very drought tolerant plant. It is dormant in winter and extremely hardy, withstanding temperatures well below 0°F and useful in gardens in USDA Zone 4a and above. It is also resistant to predation by deer and other herbivores. Trim back to the ground in winter to keep planting neat and to stimulate new growth in spring. This is a good ground cover on slopes where it helps reduce erosion and planted in the native garden its gray foliage contrasts nicely with dark foliage plants like Ceanothus.
Artemisia ludoviciana ssp. albula can be found growing naturally in in dry sandy and rocky locations in the high desert and Peninsular Ranges up to 4,600 feet of southern and central California. It also grows east to Colorado and western Texas and south into northwestern Mexico. The name for the genus likely honors Artemisia II of Caria, a botanist and medical researcher who died in 350 BC but whose name came from the Greek goddess Artemis, whom the Romans called Diana. The specific epithet is a Latinized version of the word Louisiana and is a reference to the area of the Louisiana purchase where the British born American botanist Thomas Nuttall first described this species from along the banks of the Mississippi near St. Louis and included it in his The Genera of North American Plants in 1818. The subspecific epithet means "whiteish" from the Latin 'albus' meaning "white". Our plants are from cuttings taken from private property at 4,200 feet in the Lost Horse Valley of Joshua Tree National Park.
The information displayed on this page about Artemisia ludoviciana ssp. albula is based on the research we conducted about it in our nursery horticultural library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include some of our own observations made about this plant as it grows in the nursery gardens and other gardens that we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we have received from others and welcome hearing from anyone with additional information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information that will aid others to better grow it.
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