Description
Artemisia absinthium
Herbaceous perennial with silver-green leaves arranged spirally around the stems, yellow wind-pollinated flowers, and fibrous roots.
Artemisia species are known for the powerful chemical constituents in their essential oils – substances such as terpenoids, flavonoids, coumarins, caffeoylquinic acids,and sterols which have been extracted for medicinal and other uses such as insecticides, antimalarials, cytotoxins, antihepatotoxic, fungicides, antibacterials, and allelochemicals.
Wormwood is an intensely bitter herb once used for flavouring absinthe, mead, and in 18th century England, wormwood was sometimes used instead of hops in beer. In Morocco it is used with tea, called sheeba. In Lithuania it is used mixed with Tansy for preservative purposes (to protect smoked meats from flies blow, other pests, and spoilage) as well as for flavouring.
Wormwood is a highly valued medicinal plant with many uses, particularly as a tonic on the liver and digestive system and as a vermifuge, but must be taken with caution as large doses can be fatal. Wormwood can be also used as a deterrent against fleas and moths and is a useful companion plant in a chook run. It can be fed to stock as an anthelminthic. Root secretions may inhibit growth of other plants, e.g. weeds. The leaves and stems can be cut back as hard as you like each season – we use it for ‘chop and drop’ biomass. Yellow and green dyes can be made from the leaves.
Full sun, well drained site. Artemisias tend to be longer lived, more hardy and more aromatic when they are grown in a poor dry soil.
Height to 100cm.
Certified organic plant.
