Coastal sagewort

Oligosporus pycnocephalus Lessing, Linnaea 6: 524. 1831; Artemisia campestris Linnaeus subsp. pycnocephala (Lessing) H. M. Hall & Clements

Perennials, 30–70(–100) cm, faintly aromatic. Stems usually 10+ (rising beyond basal leaves, decumbent), whitish gray, (ca. 5 mm diam., densely leafy) densely hairy. Leaves persistent, gray-green; blades broadly lanceolate, faces woolly-hairy; proximalmost blades 3–8 × 2–6 cm, 2–3-pinnatifid, lobes linear (to 2 mm wide); cauline somewhat reduced, 2–3 × 0.8–1.2 cm; apices acute, faces hairy. Heads (sessile, clustered in glomerules) in (densely leafy) paniculiform to spiciform arrays 10–20(–30) × 1–4 cm. Involucres globose, 3–4.5 × 3–4.5 mm . Phyllaries (lanceolate, margins obscured by indument, hairs straight. Florets: pistillate 5–20; functionally staminate 12–25; corollas pale yellow (broadly tubular), ca. 2 mm, glabrous. Cypselae ellipsoid (faintly nerved), 1–1.5 mm, glabrous.

Flowering late spring–mid summer. Rocky or sandy soils of coastal beaches; 0–200 m; Calif.