Artemisia absinthium |
Artemisia tripartita |
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absinth wormwood, absinthe, absinthe wormwood, absinthium, armoise absinthe, common wormwood, green ginger, oldman, oldman wormwood, wormwood |
cut-leaf sagebrush, three-tip sagebrush |
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Habit | Perennials, 40–60(–100) cm (mat-forming), aromatic. | Shrubs, 5–15 or 20–150(–200) cm, aromatic; root-sprouting (caudices with adventitious buds, fibrous rooted). | ||||
Stems | gray-green (sometimes woody proximally), densely canescent to glabrescent (hairs appressed). |
pale gray, glabrous. |
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Leaves | deciduous, gray-green; blades broadly ovate, 3–8 × 1–4 cm, mostly pinnately lobed (basal 2–3-pinnatifid, lobes obovate), faces densely canescent. |
deciduous, gray-green; blades broadly cuneate, 1.5–4 × 0.5–2 cm, deeply 3-lobed (lobes 1–1.4 mm wide, acute; cauline leaves smaller, mostly 3-lobed). |
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Involucres | broadly ovoid, 2–3 × 3–5 mm. |
globose or turbinate, 2–4 × 1.5–3 mm. |
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Florets | pistillate 9–20; bisexual 30–50; corollas 1–2 mm, glandular. |
3–11; corollas 2–2.5 mm, glandular (style branches included). |
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Phyllaries | gray-green, densely sericeous. |
broadly lanceolate (margins scarious, obscured by indument), canescent. |
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Heads | (nodding) in open (diffusely branched), paniculiform arrays 10–20(–35) × (2–)10–13(–15) cm. |
in paniculiform or spiciform arrays (5–)8–15(–35) × (0.5–)1–5 cm. |
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Cypselae | (± cylindric, slightly curved, obscurely nerved), ± 0.5 mm, glabrous (shiny). |
(columnar, unequally ribbed) 1.8–2.3 mm, glabrous or resinous. |
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2n | = 18. |
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Artemisia absinthium |
Artemisia tripartita |
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Phenology | Flowering mid summer–fall. | |||||
Habitat | Widely cultivated, persisting from plantings, disturbed areas | |||||
Elevation | 0–1000 m [0–3300 ft] | |||||
Distribution |
CA; CO; CT; IA; ID; IL; IN; KS; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MT; NC; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NY; OH; OR; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; UT; VT; WA; WI; WY; AB; BC; MB; NB; NF; NS; ON; PE; QC; SK; Europe [Introduced in North America]
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ID; NV; OR; WA; WY; BC
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Discussion | 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.) |
Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 19, p. 519. | FNA vol. 19, p. 518. | ||||
Parent taxa | ||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | A. trifida, A. tridentata subsp. trifida, Seriphidium tripartitum | |||||
Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 848. (1753) | Rydberg: Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 1: 432. (1900) | ||||
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