Artemisia scoparia Seeds | Broom Wormwood
LATIN NAME: Artemisia scoparia
COMMON NAME: Broom Wormwood
Plant Profile
Broom Wormwood is an aromatic annual or biennial of dry ground from Europe to Asia, growing thirty to a hundred centimetres of fine, feathery foliage that turns reddish in autumn. In its second summer it sends up dense, airy panicles of tiny yellowish flower heads, and the dried stems were once bound into household brooms, which gives the plant its name.
It is a plant of roadsides, steppes and disturbed sandy ground, thriving where little else does, and it has naturalised in parts of North America where it is regarded as a rangeland weed. In its home range it is one of the several artemisias traded as yin chen, a spring herb for the liver.
Science & Biotechnology
Its closest medicinal relative is Artemisia capillaris, the principal source of Yin Chen Hao in Chinese medicine, and the two species share a similar volatile-oil profile dominated by capillene and other aromatic compounds. Chemical work has found the profiles close enough that the two have been confused in trade, and pharmacopoeial monographs specify which plant is intended.
As an invasive, its fine seed is shed from the panicles over weeks and moves readily on wind and vehicles, which is why it colonises roadsides so quickly. Analyses of the oil find capillene as the lead compound, with a handful of minor terpenes that vary with the population and the harvest date. Population studies along roadsides have tracked how quickly its seed moves with vehicles, and the distances recorded explain why a single uncut plant can seed a kilometre of verge in two years.
Uses & Benefits
In the garden it is a foliage plant for a dry, sunny bank, where its misty texture sets off stronger shapes and its autumn colour is a bonus. It is also a traditional herb within its home range, used as its better-known relative is, though buyers should rely on pharmacopoeial material rather than garden gatherings.
Where it has naturalised, control rather than cultivation is the object: cutting before the seed ripens and keeping disturbed ground sown with grass both check it. In Chinese herbal markets the spring seedling tops are sold under the same name, and the two materials are distinguished by shape and season.
Growing from Seed
Sow the fine seed on the surface of a loose, well-drained mix in spring and press it in without covering; light helps it germinate.
Keep the sowing just moist and give it full sun; the seedlings are up within two weeks and grow fast.
Pot them singly, and plant out into sharp, sandy soil in a hot, open position, where the plant will need nothing further except a cut back before the seed sets. It tolerates poor gravel and reflected heat from walls, and a dry, lean site keeps the foliage silver, compact and free of the leggy open growth that rich soil invites.
Our Take
A feathery silver-green for dry banks with a herbal history behind it, best kept from seeding unless you want it everywhere.
Related Reading
More species in the same orbit as Broom Wormwood: