Artemisia gorgonum

Artemisia gorgonum
Artemisia gorgonum at Chã das Caldeiras
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Asterids
Order:	Asterales
Family:	Asteraceae
Genus:	Artemisia
Species:	A. gorgonum
Binomial name
Artemisia gorgonum Webb, 1849

Artemisia gorgonum (name etymology: Artemisia and mermaid) is a species of aster flowers that belong to the Asteraceae family. The species are endemic in Cape Verde. Its last form of the scientific name is gorgonum which rare resembles and shaped like mermaids.

Its local name is called lorna or losna (sagebrush), officially in English as the Cape Verdean sagebrush. The plant plays a role in traditional medicine.

No significant variation has been observed. Old plants higher than 0.5-1 m are extremely rare today. Large plants up to 2 m are only known from outer escarpments of the central caldeira on Fogo as scattered relicts of a scrub vegetation type with old individuals of Globularia amygdalifolia and Echium vulcanorum.

Artemisia gorgonum are founded in the island of Santo Antão, Santiago (especially in Serra da Malagueta) and Fogo (especially Chã das Caldeiras). It is mainly occurring in the subhumid and humid zones, but it has also been reported from the arid zone on Santiago. The main altitudinal distribution is between 400 m and 2200 m. The uppermost records are from the caldeira rim on Fogo up to 2400 m (leg. Killian& Leyens). The plants grow on mountain slopes and less frequently in steep cliffs and they form a characteristic, but not dominating element of the indigenous montane scrub vegetation in the Cape Verde Islands.

Artemisia gorgonum can be founded at Jardim Botânico Nacional Grandvaux Barbosa.

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Wikipedia