Artemisia campestris Linnaeus var. macilenta Maximowicz, Mém. Acad. Imp. Sci. St.-Pétersbourg Divers Savans 9: 158. 1859; A. desertorum Sprengel var. macilenta (Maximowicz) Pampanini; Oligosporus macilentus (Maximowicz) Poljakov.

Herbs, perennial, or nearly subshrubs, 40-70 cm tall, puberulent, often glabrescent. Lower stem leaves: petiole 1-3 cm; leaf blade ovate or broadly ovate, 2-4 × 2-4 cm, 2-pinnatisect; segments 2 or 3 pairs. Middle and upper stem leaves ± sessile; leaf blade pinnatisect; segments 2 pairs; lobules 7-12(-15) × 0.3-0.5(-1) mm. Leaflike bracts linear, entire. Synflorescence a narrow panicle. Involucre ovoid or subglobose, 1-1.5(-2) mm in diam. Marginal female florets 3-6. Disk florets 4-8, male. Achenes obovoid. Fl. and fr. Aug-Oct.

Dry slopes, valleys, roadsides, forest margins, steppes, forest steppes; low to middle elevations. N Hebei, Nei Mongol, N Shanxi [E Russia].