Montane. Rocks, woodland openings. Summer, fall.
Above: Highway 550 south of Silverton, August 6. 2021.
Left: East Fork of the Dolores River Trail, August 25, 2005.

Artemisia franserioides grows to an arching two feet with an abundance of tiny orbs of white/green/yellow flowerheads.  Although the plant is very slender and easily lost in a forest green floor, its large, gently and deeply lobed leaves are very easy to spot and, in fact, are exactly what Betty and I noticed when we first became aware of this plant.  Touch the leaves and you will always remember this plant for its lovely, sweet, and very strong fragrance.

See the Artemisia page for the derivation of the genus name.  "Franseria" was a genus of Asteraceae now included in Ambrosia and "oides" means "similar to".

Montane. Rocks, woodland openings. Summer, fall.
Roaring Fork Road, August 16, 2007 and East Fork Trail, September 7, 2011.

Six-to-ten inch flower stems often gently arch.  There are no ray flowers and the disk flowers are packed tightly into minute heads. Each glowing yellow ball in the photograph below is a flower bud. In this same photograph you can see that more than a dozen of these tiny buds around the perimeter of the flower are open. Interior buds will open over a number of days. At nine o'clock you can see the two-parted style.

Montane. Rocks, woodland openings. Summer, fall.
East Fork of the Dolores River Trail, August 25, 2005.

Beds of numerous basal leaves are common.  In this picture only the two plants at the bottom center have sent up flower stalks (fine vertical lines in the very center of the photograph). 

Montane. Rocks, woodland openings. Summer, fall.
Roaring Fork Road, August 16, 2007.

Range map © John Kartesz,
Floristic Synthesis of North America

State Color Key

Species present in state and native
Species present in state and exotic
Species not present in state

County Color Key

Species present and not rare
Species present and rare
Species extirpated (historic)
Species extinct
Species noxious
Species exotic and present
Native species, but adventive in state
Eradicated
Questionable presence

Range map for Artemisia franserioides