Artemisia annua L.

• Authority

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

• Family

  Asteraceae

• Scientific Name

  Artemisia annua L.

• Description

  Species Description - Sweet-scented glabrous annual 3–30 dm, usually bushy-branched; lvs 2–10 cm, mostly twice or thrice pinnatifid, the ultimate segments linear or lanceolate, sharply toothed; infl broad and open, panicle-like, the heads loose, often nodding, on evident short peduncles; invol glabrous, 1–2 mm; achenes narrowly turbinate, obscurely or scarcely nerved; 2n=18. Fields and waste places; native to Asia and e. Europe, now naturalized in N. Amer., especially in e. and c. U.S. and adj. Can. Aug.–Nov. Source of a potentially important antimalarial drug, artemisinin.

• Common Names

  annual wormwood