Arctic Wormwood

Artemisia senjavinensis is known only from western Alaska (Seward Peninsula) and the Chukchi Peninsula of the Russian Far East.

Perennials, 30–90 cm (densely cespitose), mildly aromatic (caudices branched, woody, taprooted). Stems 1–9, erect, gray-green, lanate. Leaves mostly basal (in rosettes, cauline 2–5, scattered on flowering stems); blades (basal) broadly oblanceolate, 0.5–0.8 × 0.5–0.7 cm, relatively deeply lobed (lobes 3–5, acute; cauline blades 0.5–1 cm, entire or pinnately lobed, lobes 3–5), faces densely tomentose to sericeous (hairs 1–2 mm). Heads in corymbiform arrays 0.5–2.5 × 0.5–2.5 cm (subtended by white-sericeous bracts). Involucres turbinate, 3–4 × 3–5 mm. Phyllaries lanceolate or ovate, hairy. Florets: pistillate 4–5; bisexual 3–4; corollas yellow or tan, 1.5–2, glandular (style branches blunt, not fringed). Cypselae (brown) linear-oblong, ca. 2 mm, (apices flat), glabrous. 2n = 36, 54.

Ajania senjavinensis (Besser) Poljakov; Artemisia androsacea Seemann

Artemisia senjavinensis Besser, Nouv. Mem. Soc. Nat. Mosc 3: 65. 1834.*
Artemisia glomerata H. & A. Bot. Beech. Voy. 125. 1832. Not A. glomerata Ledeb. 1805. Artemisia androsacea Seem. Bot. Voy. Herald 34. 1852.
A cespitose perennial, with a thick caudex, forming dense tufts; stems scapiform, about 1
dm. high, densely silky-hirsute; basal leaves numerous, clustered, cuneate in outline, 3-5-fid,
* Originally published as A. semavinensis, but spelling corrected in Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. 9: 64. 1836. densely silky-hirsute, about 1 cm. long; lobes oblong, acutish; lower stem-leaves similar but shorter and broader, with ovate lobes, the upper entire; heads few in a dense capitate cluster; involucre hemispheric, 3-4 mm. high, 4-5 mm. broad; bracts about 15, ovate, acutish, in 3 series, with dark-bro^vn or black margins, denselj' hirsute on the back ; ray-flowers 5-8; corollas 3-4toothed, glabrous or sparingly glandular-granuliferous, 2 mm. long; disk-flowers 10-20; corollas trumpet-shaped with a somewhat campanulate throat, glandular-granuliferous, 3 mm. long; achenes 2 mm. long.
Tate locality: Senjavin Sound [eastern Siberia]. DiSTRrBUTiON: Western Alaska and eastern Siberia.

Artemisia senjavinensis, the arctic wormwood, is a rare Arctic species of plants in the sunflower family. It has been found only on the Seward Peninsula on the Alaskan side of the Bering Strait and on the Chukotka (Chukchi) Peninsula on the Russian side.

Artemisia senjavinensis is a shrub up to 90 cm (3 feet) tall, with many stems densely clumped together. Leaves are gray-green, woolly, mostly in rosettes close to the ground. There are many small yellow or tan flower heads. The species grows at low elevations near the shore.