Perennials or subshrubs, 50-130(-170) cm (not cespitose), aromatic (roots thick, woody). Stems relatively numerous, erect, brown, branched, (woody, brittle), glabrous or sparsely hairy. Leaves cauline, dark green; blades broadly ovate, (2-)3-6 × 0.02-0.15 cm, 2-3-pinnatifid (lobes linear or filiform), faces sparsely hairy (abaxial) or glabrous (adaxial). Heads (nodding at maturity) in open, widely branched arrays 10-30 × 2-10 cm. Involucres ovoid, (1-)2-3.5 × (1-)2-2.5 mm. Phyllaries oblong-elliptic, sparsely hairy. Florets: pistillate 4-8(-15); bisexual 14-16(-20); corollas yellow, 0.5-1 mm, glandular. Cypselae (light brown) ellipsoid (2-5-angled, flattened, furrowed), 0.5-1 mm, glabrous. 2n = 18.

Flowering late summer-fall. Waste places; 0-3000 m; introduced; Alta., Man., N.B., Ont., Que., Sask.; Colo., Conn., Del., D.C., Ill., Iowa, Kans., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Nebr., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Oreg., Pa., S.C., Utah, Vt., Wis., Wyo.; Eurasia; Africa.

Artemisia abrotanum has been widely cultivated in gardens for old-time uses such as a fly and parasite repellent. It has had a renewed popularity in xeriscape gardening; it is drought tolerant and can fill difficult garden spaces (e.g., dry rocky slopes). Reports of naturalization may be exaggerated; it is not known to become weedy in any of its known locations in North America.

Perennial and ±shrubby, 0.5-2 m, much branched; lvs 3-6 cm, thinly tomentose beneath, green and glabrous or nearly so above, 2-3 times pinnatifid with elongate, linear or filiform, ascending segments 0.5-1.5 mm wide; infl ample; invol 2-3.5 mm; achenes 4-5-angled, broadest at the truncate summit; 2n=18. Roadsides and waste places; native of the Old World, cult. and sparingly established throughout much of the U.S., especially toward the ne. Aug., Sept.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

©The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. Used by permission.