Artemisia absinthium
Artemisia palmeri
absinth wormwood, absinthe, absinthe wormwood, absinthium, armoise absinthe, common wormwood, green ginger, oldman, oldman wormwood, wormwood
Palmer sagewort, San Diego sagewort
gray-green (sometimes woody proximally), densely canescent to glabrescent (hairs appressed).
usually 1–15, erect, brown, simple (wandlike, brittle, bases woody), glabrous.
deciduous, gray-green;
blades broadly ovate, 3–8 × 1–4 cm, mostly pinnately lobed (basal 2–3-pinnatifid, lobes obovate), faces densely canescent.
cauline (petiolate), bicolor (gray-green and dark green);
blades broadly lanceolate, 3.5–12(–15) × 0.2–10 cm, relatively deeply and coarsely pinnately lobed (lobes 3–7+), faces canescent (abaxial) or glabrous or sparsely hairy (adaxial).
broadly ovoid, 2–3 × 3–5 mm.
globose, 2.5–3.5 × 2–5 mm.
pistillate 9–20;
bisexual 30–50;
corollas 1–2 mm, glandular.
pistillate 0;
bisexual 8–30;
corollas pale yellow, 1.5–2.2 mm, resinous-glandular (style branches exsert, truncate, erose).
gray-green, densely sericeous.
(pale green to stramineous) broadly ovate, glabrous or sparsely hairy (receptacles paleate).
(nodding) in open (diffusely branched), paniculiform arrays 10–20(–35) × (2–)10–13(–15) cm.
(erect or nodding, peduncles relatively slender) in open, paniculiform arrays, 15–40 × 3–10 cm (widely branched).
(± cylindric, slightly curved, obscurely nerved), ± 0.5 mm, glabrous (shiny).
(light brown, shiny) ellipsoid, 1–1.2 mm, (4-angled), glabrous or glandular.
= 18.
= 18.
Artemisia absinthium
Artemisia palmeri
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.)
Of conservation concern.
Artemisia palmeri is known only from drainages near the coast, from northeast of San Diego to just south of Ensenada. Most of its habitat has been destroyed by urban development. It is of particular interest because of its paleate receptacles, an anomalous trait that confounds our understanding of its evolutionary relationship to other species of Artemisia.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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PNW Herbaria, Turner Photog. 
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