Flora of North America species comparison

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Artemisia annua

annual wormwood, armoise annuelle, sweet annie, sweet sagewort
Habit Annuals, 30–200(–300) cm, sweetly aromatic.
Stems

mostly 1, erect, green, turning to reddish brown with age, simple (smooth or ribbed), glabrous or sparsely hairy.
Leaves

cauline, bright green;

blades triangular to broadly ovate, 2–5(–10) × 2–4 cm, 2–3-pinnatifid (lobes relatively narrow, ± toothed), faces glabrous, gland-dotted.
Involucres

globose, 1.5–2.5 × 1.5–2.5 mm.
Florets

pistillate (0–)10–20;

bisexual 18–24;

corollas pale yellow (broadly campanulate), 0.5–1 mm, glabrous.
Phyllaries

(green) lanceolate, glabrous.
Heads

(nodding, peduncles 2–5 mm) in open, (diffusely branched, leafy) arrays 15–30(–40) × 10–20 cm.
Cypselae

oblong (flattened), 0.3–0.8 mm, glabrous.
2n

= 18.

Artemisia annua
Phenology Flowering late summer–fall.
Habitat Moist waste areas, sandy soils
Elevation 0–2000 m (0–6600 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; AR; AZ; CA; CO; CT; DC; DE; IA; ID; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MS; MT; NC; NE; NH; NJ; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; TN; TX; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; NB; ON; QC; Eurasia [Introduced in North America]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Widely cultivated for aromatic oils, Artemisia annua often persists in gardens, becoming naturalized in moist-temperate areas (especially in eastern United States). Reports of naturalization may be exaggerated (reported for Prince Edward Island, but not established).

The systematic placement of this species appears to align most closely with species of the Eurasian subg. Seriphidium (L. E. Watson et al. 2002). Molecular evidence suggests that the Artemisia annua lineage may be ancestral to woody species in the Old World.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 19, p. 523.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Anthemideae > Artemisia > subg. Artemisia
Sibling taxa
A. abrotanum, A. absinthium, A. alaskana, A. aleutica, A. arbuscula, A. biennis, A. bigelovii, A. borealis, A. californica, A. campestris, A. cana, A. carruthii, A. douglasiana, A. dracunculus, A. filifolia, A. franserioides, A. frigida, A. furcata, A. globularia, A. glomerata, A. laciniata, A. longifolia, A. ludoviciana, A. michauxiana, A. nesiotica, A. norvegica, A. nova, A. packardiae, A. palmeri, A. papposa, A. pattersonii, A. pedatifida, A. pontica, A. porteri, A. pycnocephala, A. pygmaea, A. rigida, A. rothrockii, A. rupestris, A. scopulorum, A. senjavinensis, A. serrata, A. spiciformis, A. stelleriana, A. suksdorfii, A. tilesii, A. tridentata, A. tripartita, A. vulgaris
Synonyms A. chamomilla
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 847. (1753)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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