Roman Wormwood

Artemisia pontica has finely dissected gray foliage and is widely planted as an ornamental. It escapes locally; it has not been reported as problematic. The only species with which it has been confused in North America is A. abrotanum, which has dark green (not gray) foliage.

Perennials, 40–100 cm, somewhat aromatic; rhizomes creeping, woody. Stems relatively numerous, erect, brown, mostly simple (brittle, bases woody) canescent or glabrate. Leaves cauline, grayish green; sessile (proximalmost short-petiolate); blades triangular to ovate, 1–5 × 1–3 cm, 2–3-pinnatifid (lobes 0.5–1 mm wide, acute), faces pubescent (abaxial) or hairy to glabrate (adaxial). Heads (nodding) in paniculiform arrays 10–22 × 2–4 cm. Involucres spheric, 1.5–2(–3) mm. Phyllaries (subequal) linear, hairy. Florets: pistillate 10–12; bisexual 40–45; corollas pale yellow, 0.2–0.3 mm, sometimes gland-dotted (stigma lobes relatively short, not emerging from tubes, short-ciliate). Cypselae ellipsoid (angled), 0.1–0.2 mm, glabrous. 2n = 18.

Artemisia pontica L. Sp. PI. 847. 1753
Absinthium ponticum Besser, Enum. PI. Volh. 76. 1822.
A suffruticose perennial, about 5 dm. high, with creeping rootstock; stems canescenttomentulose; leaves 1-3 cm. long, twice pinnatifid into linear short diasions, grayish-tomentulose on both sides, the lower petioled, the upper sessile; heads numerous, nodding, in leafy panides, with more or less racemiform branches; involucre hemispheric, about 3 mm. high and 5 mm. broad; bracts about 15, in 3 series, tomentulose, the outermost lanceolate, herbaceous, acute, shorter than the inner, the rest obovate, scarious, erose, rounded at the apex; ray-flowers 10-15; corollas usually 4-toothed, 1 mm. long; disk-flowers 25-30; corollas funnelform-campanulate, less than 1.5 mm. long; achenes 1 mm. long.
Type locality: Hungary.
Distribution: Cultivated and escaped, sparingly established from Maine to Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Manitoba; native of Europe.
Illustr. io.n-s: F1. Deuts. ed. 5. pi. 3007; Jacq. Fl. Austr. pi. 99; Hayne, Arzn. Gew. 2: pi. 10; Reichenb. Ic. Fl. Germ. 16: pi. 1041. f. Ill; Britt. & Brown, 111. Fl. /. 4011; ed. 2. /. 4584.

Artemisia pontica, the Roman wormwood or small absinthe, is an herb used in the production of absinthe and vermouth. Originating in southeastern Europe (the specific name refers to the Pontus area on the shores of the Black Sea), it is naturalized over much of Eurasia from France to Xinjiang, and is also found in the wild in northeastern North America.

Artemisia pontica is called "little absinthe" because it is smaller in stature and leaf than the "great absinthe" A. absinthium. It grows as a rhizomatous perennial with erect stems up to 100 centimetres (39 in) tall; the grey foliage is finely divided and aromatic. Flowers are small, yellowish, and appear in loose panicles at stem tips.

The essential oil contains cineol, camphor, thujone, and borneol among other components. It is said to be less bitter than great absinthe and is the principal flavoring of vermouth. It is commercially cultivated in Spain and Lithuania.