Wormwood - Artemisia absinthium
Family - Asteraceae
Also known as Green Ginger

This plant is poisonous.

A herbaceous perennial plant native to temperate regions of North America, Europe and northern Africa with a hard woody rhizome growing in uncultivated and waste ground, rocky slopes, and at the edge of footpaths and fields. The stems grow to between 0.8-1.2 m (2.5-4ft) tall, grooved, finely hairy, branched and silvery-green. The leaves, greenish-grey above and white below, are spirally arranged and covered with silky silvery-white trichomes, bearing minute glands producing a volatile oil with ingredients including silica, absinthin and anabsinthine, thujone, tannic and resins, malic acid, and succinic acid.

Basal leaves are up to 25cm (9in) long, bi-pinnate to tri-pinnate with long petioles, with the cauline leaves smaller, 5-10cm (2-4in) long, less divided, and with short petioles. Pale green-yellow tubular flowers clustered in spherical heads, which are in turn clustered in leafy and branched panicles. Flowering is from July to October, pollinated by the wind maturing to a small achene.

The plant's characteristic odor can make it useful for making sprays against pests, and fleas and moths indoors. Wormwood is an ingredient in the spirit Absinthe, and is also used for flavouring in some other spirits and wines, including bitters and vermouth. It has also used medically as a tonic, antiseptic and antispasmodic. In the Middle Ages it was used to spice mead. Wormwood has been used as a colouring and flavoring agent and has traditional use as a cure for intestinal worms.

Back

Site design ©1999- -