Artemisia absinthium (Absinthium, Absinthe Wormwood, Wormwood or Grand Wormwood) is a species of
wormwood, native to temperate regions of
Europe,
Asia and northern
Africa.It is a
herbaceous perennial plant, with a hard, woody
rhizome. The stems are straight, growing to 0.8-1.2 m (rarely 1.5 m) tall, grooved, branched, and silvery-green. The
leaves are spirally arranged, greenish-grey above and white below, covered with silky silvery-white hairs, and bearing minute oil-producing glands; the basal leaves are up to 25 cm long, bipinnate to tripinnate with long
petioles, with the cauline leaves (those on the stem) smaller, 5-10 cm long, less divided, and with short petioles; the uppermost leaves can be both simple and sessile (without a petiole). Its
flowers are pale yellow, tubular, and clustered in spherical bent-down
heads (capitula), which are in turn clustered in leafy and branched
panicles. Flowering is from early summer to early autumn; pollination is
anemophilous. The
fruit is a small
achene; seed
dispersal is by gravity.
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