Artemisia absinthium
Artemisia alaskana
absinth wormwood, absinthe, absinthe wormwood, absinthium, armoise absinthe, common wormwood, green ginger, oldman, oldman wormwood, wormwood
Alaska wormwood, alaskan sagebrush, Siberian wormwood
gray-green (sometimes woody proximally), densely canescent to glabrescent (hairs appressed).
1–10, erect, gray-green, simple (suffrutescent from woody offsets), densely hairy to glabrescent.
deciduous, gray-green;
blades broadly ovate, 3–8 × 1–4 cm, mostly pinnately lobed (basal 2–3-pinnatifid, lobes obovate), faces densely canescent.
basal and cauline, mostly gray-green;
blades obovate, 1.5–5 × 0.5–1.5 cm, 3-lobed to 2-ternately lobed (lobes 0.5–3 mm wide, margins flat; cauline leaves smaller, sometimes entire), faces tomentose.
broadly ovoid, 2–3 × 3–5 mm.
broadly campanulate, 3.5–5 × 6–9 mm.
pistillate 9–20;
bisexual 30–50;
corollas 1–2 mm, glandular.
pistillate 8–10;
bisexual 20–45;
corollas yellow, 2–2.5 mm, glabrous or glandular.
gray-green, densely sericeous.
ovate (margins brownish or hyaline), tomentose.
(nodding) in open (diffusely branched), paniculiform arrays 10–20(–35) × (2–)10–13(–15) cm.
(peduncles 0 or to 30 mm) in (leafy) paniculiform to racemiform arrays 12–25 × 1–4.5 cm.
(± cylindric, slightly curved, obscurely nerved), ± 0.5 mm, glabrous (shiny).
ellipsoid (flattened), 1–1.5 mm, glabrous.
= 18.
= 18.
Artemisia absinthium
Artemisia alaskana
Artemisia absinthium provides the flavoring as well as the psychoactive ingredient for absinthe liquor, a beverage that is illegal in some markets. Known as a powerful neurotoxin, absinthe in large quantities is addictive as well as deadly. The species is popular in the horticultural trade. Prized by gardeners for its gracefully scalloped leaves and gray-green foliage, it creates an attractive and winter-hardy flower border.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
As circumscribed here, Artemisia alaskana is known from northwestern North America. The type specimen of A. alaskana is atypical, with longer peduncles and narrower leaf lobes than are found in most populations.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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PNW Herbaria, Turner Photog. 
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