Artemisia absinthium
Artemisia pygmaea
absinth wormwood, absinthe, absinthe wormwood, absinthium, armoise absinthe, common wormwood, green ginger, oldman, oldman wormwood, wormwood
pygmy sage, pygmy sagebrush
gray-green (sometimes woody proximally), densely canescent to glabrescent (hairs appressed).
pale to light brown (stiffly erect, densely clothed with appressed foliage), sparsely tomentose.
deciduous, gray-green;
blades broadly ovate, 3–8 × 1–4 cm, mostly pinnately lobed (basal 2–3-pinnatifid, lobes obovate), faces densely canescent.
persistent (sessile, rigid), bright green;
blades oblong to ovate, 0.3–0.5 × 0.2–0.3 cm, pinnately lobed (nearly to midribs, 1/3+ widths of blades, lobes 3–7, divergent), faces glabrous or sparsely tomentose, resinous.
broadly ovoid, 2–3 × 3–5 mm.
narrowly turbinate, 2–3 × 3–4 mm.
pistillate 9–20;
bisexual 30–50;
corollas 1–2 mm, glandular.
2–6;
corollas 2.5–3 mm, glandular (style branches flat, erose, exsert).
gray-green, densely sericeous.
(green) narrowly lanceolate (midribs prominent), glabrous or sparsely tomentose.
(nodding) in open (diffusely branched), paniculiform arrays 10–20(–35) × (2–)10–13(–15) cm.
(sessile, erect) in paniculiform to racemiform arrays (1–)2–3 × 0.5–1 cm.
(± cylindric, slightly curved, obscurely nerved), ± 0.5 mm, glabrous (shiny).
(prismatic) 0.4–0.5 mm, glabrous, resinous.
= 18.
= 18.
Artemisia absinthium
Artemisia pygmaea
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.)
Artemisia pygmaea is a distinctive, faintly aromatic shrublet, often mistaken for something other than a sagebrush. In early spring its stiff, bright green, deeply pinnatifid leaves are reminiscent of some prickly member of Polemoniaceae. After flowering, its heads and narrow panicles easily identify it as a member of Artemisia; it is unlike other members of the subgenus (which typically have 3-lobed leaves in fascicled lateral shoots). The molecular analysis by L. E. Watson et al. (2002) supported its phylogenetic alignment within subg. Tridentatae.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
- Local floras:
BC, 
OR, 
WA - Local Web sites:
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Flora NW, 
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IL Wildflowers, 
KS Wildflowers, 
MD Biodiversity, 
MI Flora, 
MN Wildflowers, 
MO Plants, 
PNW Herbaria, Turner Photog. 
WildflowerSearch
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USDA Plants Database- LBJ Wildflower Center
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