Artemisia absinthium (wormwood, grand wormwood, absinthe, absinthium, absinthe wormwood, mugwort, wermout, wermud, wormit, wormod) is a species of Artemisia, native to North Africa and temperate regions of Eurasia, and widely naturalized in Canada and the northern United States. It is grown as an ornamental plant and is used as an ingredient in the spirit absinthe and some other alcoholic beverages. Etymology Artemisia comes from Ancient Greek ἀρτεμισία, from Ἄρτεμις (Artemis). In Hellenistic culture, Artemis was a goddess of the hunt, and protector of the forest and children. The name absinthum comes from the Ancient Greek ἀψίνθιον, meaning the same. An alternative derivation is that the genus was named after Queen Artemisia, who was the wife and sister of Mausolus, ruler of Caria. The word "wormwood" may come from Middle English wormwode or wermode. Webster's Third New International Dictionary attributes the etymology to Old English wermōd (compare with German Wermut and the derived drink vermouth), which the OED (s.v.) marks as "of obscure origin". Some sources state the word "wormwood" comes from the ancient use of the plant as antihelminthic (expelling parasitic worms from the body by either stunning or killing them), documented in Natural History by Pliny (first century AD). Description A. absinthium is a herbaceous perennial plant with fibrous roots. The stems are straight, growing to (and rarely over ) tall, grooved, branched, and silvery-green. Leaves are spirally arranged, greenish-grey colored above, white below, covered with silky silvery-white trichomes, and bearing minute oil-producing glands. The basal leaves are up to long, bi- to tripinnate with long petioles, with the cauline leaves (those on the stem) smaller, long, less divided, and with short petioles. The uppermost leaves can be both simple and sessile (without a petiole). Flowers are pale yellow, tubular, and clustered in spherical bent-down heads (capitula), which are in turn clustered in leafy and branched panicles. Flowering occurs from early summer to early autumn; pollination is anemophilous. The fruit is a small achene. Seed dispersal occurs by gravity. A. absinthium grows naturally on uncultivated arid ground, on rocky slopes, and at the edge of footpaths and fields. Although once relatively common, it is becoming increasingly rare in the UK, where it has recently been suggested to be an archaeophyte rather than a true native. Cultivation The plant can easily be cultivated in dry soil. It should be planted under bright exposure in fertile, midweight soil. It prefers soil