Common Mugwort

Appearance

"A. vulgaris" is a tall, herbaceous, perennial plant growing 1–2 m tall, with an extensive rhizome system. Rather than depending on seed dispersal, it spreads through vegetative expansion and the anthropogenic dispersal of root rhizome fragments. The leaves are 5–20 cm long, dark green, pinnate, and sessile, with dense, white, tomentose hairs on the underside. The erect stems are grooved and often have a red-purplish tinge. The rather small florets are radially symmetrical with many yellow or dark red petals. The narrow and numerous capitula, all fertile, spread out in racemose panicles. It flowers from midsummer to early autumn.

A number of species of Lepidoptera such as "Ostrinia scapulalis" feed on the leaves and flowers of the plant.

Naming

It is also occasionally known as riverside wormwood, felon herb, chrysanthemum weed, wild wormwood, old Uncle Henry, sailor's tobacco, naughty man, old man, or St. John's plant. Mugworts have been used medicinally and as culinary herbs.

Distribution

"A. vulgaris" is native to temperate Europe, Asia, North Africa, and Alaska, and is naturalized in North America, where some consider it an invasive weed. It is a very common plant growing on nitrogenous soils, such as waste places, roadsides and other weedy and uncultivated areas.

Uses

Traditionally, it has been used as one of the flavoring and bittering agents of gruit ales, a type of unhopped, fermented grain beverage. In Vietnam, mugwort is used in cooking as an aromatic herb.

In China, the crunchy stalks of young shoots of "A. vulgaris", known as "luhao", are a seasonal vegetable often used in stir-fries.

In Nepal, the plant is also called "titepati" and is used as an offering to the gods, for cleansing the environment, as incense, and also as a medicinal plant.

The dried leaves are often smoked or drunk as a tea to promote lucid dreaming. This supposed oneirogenic effect is believed to be due to the thujone contained in the plant.