Artemisia arborescens
L. Silver WormwoodAromatic, silvery shrub to c. 1.5 m high; stems brittle, densely grey-pubescent. Leaves once or twice pinnatisect to biternate (sometimes the uppermost entire and sessile) with more or less linear segments to 35 mm long and 2 mm wide, surfaces densely silvery-tomentose with fine appressed hairs; petioles to c. 1 cm long. Inflorescence a panicle comprising several racemose branches; capitula usually nodding; peduncles 2–8(–15) mm long; involucral bracts unequal, oblong to ovate, 2.5–4.5 mm long, outer ones oblong, herbaceous, longer than the inner series, inner bracts ovate with broad scarious margins. Florets c. 35–50, yellow. Cypselas 1–1.5 mm long, pale, usually 4- or 5-ribbed; pappus absent, but corolla persistent and thickening in basal half. Flowers Oct.–Feb.
Wim, VVP, GipP, OtP, WaP, Gold, CVU, GGr, DunT, HSF, OtR. Also naturalised WA, SA, NSW. Native to southern Europe. Occasionally grown, particularly as a hedge particularly in older gardens and farms, and persisting in abandoned gardens, sometimes becoming weakly established near cultivated plants. Recorded from e.g. Mt Arapiles, Port Campbell, Point Wilson.
