Greek and Latin artemisia — the classical name of several species of daisy; either named after the goddess Artemis or Queen Artemisia of Caria.
Annual or perennial herbs, subshrubs or shrubs, aromatic, mostly hairy. Stems erect or ascending. Leaves basal and/or along stems, alternate, variously lobed or divided, rarely entire. Capitula diskiform, terminal, usually numerous in long panicles or racemes, with short stalks. Involucral bracts in 2-4 rows, overlapping, equal or unequal. Receptacle sometimes hairy, flat to conical. Outer florets female or bisexual, often oblique at apex, yellow or whitish. Inner florets bisexual or functionally male, yellow or purplish. Achenes obovoid, usually glabrous but sometimes hairy. Pappus absent.
Five species have become weeds in Australia, usually in moist disturbed areas. Several species are occasionally grown in gardens as ornamentals or for their aromatic foliage.
The following species are low, cushion-forming herbs: A. caucasica Willd. from E Europe, the Caucasus and Turkey, which grows to 30 cm tall and has reddish florets; A. frigida Willd. from Russia, Mongolia and China, which grows to 50 cm tall and has yellow-brown florets; and A. splendens Willd. from the Middle East and Caucasia, which grows to 30 cm tall and has reddish florets.
The following species are erect rhizomatous shrubs: A. schmidtiana Maxim. from Japan, which has palmately divided leaves, capitula in pyramidal panicles and yellow florets, and is generally grown as the prostrate cultivar 'Nana'; and A. stelleriana Besser., Beach Wormwood, from China, which has pinnately divided leaves, capitula in narrow racemes or panicles and yellow florets.
Many small capitula in panicles or racemes; divided aromatic leaves.
About 390 species mostly from the northern hemisphere but also a few species in S America and southern Africa.
Bremer & Humphreys (1993).
Source: (2002). Asteraceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 4. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 3. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
A fine-foliaged plant that rarely produces flowers.
It originated c.1978 as a plant raised and distributed by Mr A.J. Hancock as a presumed hybrid between A. absinthium and A. arborescens.