SILKY WORMWOOD
File Size: 117 KB
 
Artemisia dracunculus  L.
Saline County, Kansas
Perennial
Height: 20-60 inches
Family: Asteraceae - Sunflower Family
Flowering Period:   August, September
Also Called: Tarragon.
Stems: Erect, simple or branched, mostly glabrous.
Leaves: Mostly cauline, alternate; blade linear to linear-lanceolate, .8 to 3 inches long, .04 to .25 inch wide, margins entire or irregularly 3-5-lobed, surfaces glabrous.
Inflorescences: Heads discoid, in panicle-like arrays 4 to 20 inches.
Flowers: Involucres globose, .08 to .12 inch wide. Phyllaries 5-20 in 2-3 series, lanceolate, glabrous. Receptacles convex to conic. Ray florets 0. Disk florets 10--50, not all fertile; peripheral florets 6-25, pistillate; central florets 8-20, staminate; corolla yellow, .05 to .08 inch.
Fruits: Achenes tan to grayish brown, fusiform, minute, usually glabrous; pappus absent.
Habitat: Sandy to gravelly mixed-grass and shortgrass prairies.
Distribution: Principally west 1/2 of Kansas
Origin: Native
Uses: The leaves are used as the cooking herb tarragon. Native Americans took a tea of the roots for colds, dysentery and infant colic; applied the dried, powdered foliage to open sores; burned the plant to repel mosquitoes; and used the seeds for food.
Comments: For Artemis, Greek goddess of hunting, wilderness, and wild animals.

Silky wormwood
115 KB
Saline County, Kansas
Silky wormwood
116 KB
Saline County, Kansas
Silky wormwood
101 KB
Saline County, Kansas
Silky wormwood leaves
83 KB
Saline County, Kansas
Silky wormwood stems
129 KB
Saline County, Kansas