Artemisia absinthium Seeds | Wormwood
LATIN NAME: Artemisia absinthium
COMMON NAME: Wormwood
Plant Profile
Wormwood is a clump-forming perennial of sixty to a hundred and twenty centimetres, with deeply divided grey-green leaves and tiny yellow-green flower heads in a loose spike. Every part is covered with glandular hairs that release a bitter, resinous scent when touched.
It grows on waste ground, roadsides and stony slopes from Spain to Siberia, and it has followed people so far that its original range is uncertain. The bitterness is extreme: absinthin is detectable at a dilution of one part in seventy thousand, which is why the plant has been used to flavour spirits and to deter insects rather than to make a salad.
Science & Biotechnology
The bitterness comes from sesquiterpene lactones, chiefly absinthin, and it is the reason wormwood is a vermifuge: the same compounds are toxic to intestinal worms and to the liver. The essential oil contains thujone, which is convulsant in overdose and which was the basis of the campaign against absinthe a century ago.
The absinthe ban had more to do with the alcohol content of the drink and with the politics of the wine industry than with thujone, and modern analysis of pre-ban bottles shows concentrations well below the toxic threshold. The legal limit in the European Union for thujone in food and drink is now set at thirty-five milligrams per kilogram, a figure that most traditional recipes do not approach.
Uses & Benefits
The plant is used to flavour vermouth, absinthe and some bitters, always in small quantity, and it is one of the botanicals in gin. The dried herb is also used as a moth repellent in wardrobes and as a strewing herb, a use that goes back to the medieval household.
In herbal medicine it has been used for poor digestion and for worm infestations, and the tradition is long enough to be worth knowing and short enough on evidence to be worth caution. The oil is toxic and should not be taken internally. In the garden the plant is grown for its silver foliage and for the scent released when it is brushed.
Growing from Seed
Sow seed on the surface in spring at eighteen to twenty degrees, since light is needed for germination, and expect a week to three weeks. The seed is small and the seedlings are easily lost to damping off, so use a clean mix and let the surface dry between waterings.
Plant out in full sun on poor, dry soil, where the plants are compact and the scent is strongest; rich soil produces floppy growth and few flowers. Cut the plants back after flowering to keep them tidy, and divide the clumps every third year. It self-sows freely, which is a nuisance in a border and useful on a bank.
Our Take
A bitter, silver, slightly dangerous herb for the edge of a garden and the back of a drinks cabinet. Grow it in poor soil and never take the oil.
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