Artemisia integrifolia Seeds | Entire-leaved Mugwort
LATIN NAME: Artemisia integrifolia
COMMON NAME: Entire-Leaved Mugwort
Plant Profile
Entire-Leaved Mugwort is a perennial artemisia of northeastern Asian meadows and steppe edges, standing about a metre with aromatic leaves that are entire or only faintly lobed, a simple shape that is unusual in a genus famous for finely divided foliage. In late summer it carries narrow, one-sided clusters of small reddish flower heads.
It is hardy well beyond the cold of most gardens and grows in ordinary to poor soil, provided the drainage is honest. Like its relatives it spreads a little from the root, but steadily rather than aggressively, and a clump holds its place without crowding its neighbours. The leaves are grey-green rather than silver, coarser in texture than the dissected artemisias, and they hold their colour and their scent through the hottest weeks of summer.
Science & Biotechnology
Its plain leaves have made it a comparison point in studies of leaf-shape evolution within Artemisia, where most species are dissected; the genetic switches behind that difference interest botanists studying how leaf form diversifies. The genus as a whole is aromatic, and this species yields a volatile oil with the usual terpene mixture, though it has no single use to match its cousin Artemisia annua, the source of artemisinin.
In the field it is a component of cold steppe meadows, and its presence in plant lists serves as a marker of that habitat’s condition. Seed set is heavy and the seed itself is fine enough to move on the lightest breeze, so gardeners who want to contain it deadhead before the heads dry.
Uses & Benefits
In the garden it is grown for its foliage texture and its late flowers, which suit a dry border or a meadow-style planting. It can stand in for the silvery artemisias where a deeper green is wanted, and its flower clusters dry well for winter arrangements.
Its kinship to mugwort gives it a place in traditional practice in its home range, though it is not a substitute for any pharmacopoeial herb. Its dried clusters also carry a faint scent that suits potpourri, a small value the genus has been traded on for centuries, though the foliage itself is the stronger of the two. In cold-climate gardens it is also one of the last perennials standing after winter, needing only a March cut-back to start again from the woody base.
Growing from Seed
Sow the fine seed on the surface in spring and press it in without covering; keep it at ordinary room temperature and barely moist.
Germination takes two or three weeks; prick the seedlings out once they can be handled and grow them in full sun.
Plant out into well-drained soil about forty centimetres apart, and divide the clumps every few years in spring to keep them young and compact. Water it through the first summer only; after that its roots find moisture on their own, and an annual top-dressing of grit around the crown is all the attention it needs.
Our Take
The odd artemisia out: plain, deep-green aromatic leaves, hardy as anything and quietly spreading into a dependable clump for a dry border.
Related Reading
Gardeners who grow Entire-Leaved Mugwort often pair it with these related subjects: