Revision of Artemisia ludoviciana from Fri, 2016-08-26 09:43

Artemisia ludoviciana Nutt. (syn.: A. vulgaris var. ludoviciana (Nutt.) O. Kuntze, A. gnaphalodes Nutt.) (N-Am.) – A very rare and probably ephemeral alien. Formerly recorded as wool alien in the valley of river Vesdre near Verviers, at least between 1902 and 1935 (e.g. Lambinon 1995). In recent years Artemisia ludoviciana is sometimes grown as an ornamental, often in public green, especially its variety albula (Wooton) Shinners (Jäger & al. 2008), a form with white-woolly indumentum and tiny leaves. Such plants seem to self-seed regularly. Escaped individuals have been recorded since 2015, for instance in Wilrijk and Geel.  
Artemisia ludoviciana is a rare alien species in western Europe. It has been recorded, for instance in the British Isles, as garden escape or oil seed alien (Clement & Foster 1994) and in the Netherlands (Kloos 1937).
Artemisia ludoviciana is a very variable species or, according to some authors, a complex of several closely related species. Historical Belgian records were ascribed to var. gnaphalo(i)des (Nutt.) Torr. & A. Gray (Lambinon 1995) but this variety is included in subsp. ludoviciana by recent authors (e.g. Shultz 2006). The plants that were found recently are more or less intermediate between this subspecies and subsp. albula (Wooton) D.D. Keck.

Selected literature:


Clement E.J. & Foster M.C. (1994) Alien plants of the British Isles. BSBI, London: XVIII + 590 p.
Jäger E.J., Ebel F., Hanelt P. & Müller G. (eds.) (2008) Rothmaler Band 5. Exkursionsflora von Deutschland. Krautige Zier- und Nutzpflanzen. Springer Verlag, Berlin: 880 p.
Kloos A.W. (1937) Aanwinsten van de Nederlandse flora in 1936. Nederl. Kruidk. Archief 47: 136-154. [available online at: http://cultuurtijdschriften.nl/search?identifier=549055;keyword=]
Lambinon J. (1995) Notes taxonomiques, nomenclaturales et chorologiques relatives à la quatrième édition de la « Nouvelle Flore » de la Belgique et des régions voisines. 3. Données nouvelles sur des plantes adventices ou subspontanées en Belgique. Dumortiera 60: 1-36.
Perez Miranda R., Reyes Aguero J.A. & Aguirre Rivera J.R. (1999) Distribución geográfica y ecológica del estafiate (Artemisia ludoviciana Nutt. spp. mexicana (Willd. ex Spreng.) Keck). Bol. Soc. Bot. Mex. 64: 111-115.
Shultz L.M. (2006) Artemisia. In: Flora of North America Editorial Committee (eds.), Flora of North America, vol. 19. Oxford University Press, New York-Oxford: 503-534. [available online at: http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=102682]

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