Artemisia absinthium
Artemisia papposa
absinth wormwood, absinthe, absinthe wormwood, absinthium, armoise absinthe, common wormwood, green ginger, oldman, oldman wormwood, wormwood
Owyhee sage, Owyhee sagebrush
gray-green (sometimes woody proximally), densely canescent to glabrescent (hairs appressed).
relatively numerous, erect, gray, simple (annual flowering branches leafy), loosely sericeous.
deciduous, gray-green;
blades broadly ovate, 3–8 × 1–4 cm, mostly pinnately lobed (basal 2–3-pinnatifid, lobes obovate), faces densely canescent.
(semideciduous) cauline (sessile), gray-green;
blades oblanceolate, 0.5–3 × 0.2–1.5 cm (bases attenuate), 3-lobed or irregularly palmatifid (lobes narrow, apices acute), sparsely sericeous-lanate.
broadly ovoid, 2–3 × 3–5 mm.
globose, 3.5–5 × 4–5 mm.
pistillate 9–20;
bisexual 30–50;
corollas 1–2 mm, glandular.
pistillate 8;
bisexual 20–35;
corollas yellow (tubular with broad throats), ca. 2 mm, glandular.
gray-green, densely sericeous.
ovate, sparsely sericeous.
(nodding) in open (diffusely branched), paniculiform arrays 10–20(–35) × (2–)10–13(–15) cm.
(mostly erect, peduncles 0 or to 25 mm) in racemiform arrays (4–)8–12(–14) × (0.5–)1–2(–4) cm.
(± cylindric, slightly curved, obscurely nerved), ± 0.5 mm, glabrous (shiny).
(light brown) oblanceoloid (4–5-angled, broadest at truncate apices), 0.3–0.5 mm, glandular-pubescent (pappi coroniform, 0.3–0.6 mm, irregularly lacerate).
= 18.
Artemisia absinthium
Artemisia papposa
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.)
The pappose cypselae make Artemisia papposa anomalous within Artemisia. Artemisia papposa has capitulescence characteristics that suggest a relationship to Sphaeromeria.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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PNW Herbaria, Turner Photog. 
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