Artemisia biennis

Biennial wormwood, Biennial Wormwood

Family: Asteraceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Biennial wormwood is a naturalized annual found in northern coastal California, the Great Valley, central western California, southern California coastal areas, western Transverse Ranges, San Bernardino Mountains, Great Basin, and desert mountains at elevations below 2,200 meters in disturbed moist sites. Flowering from July to November, this plant produces small green flower heads approximately 2 to 4 millimeters in diameter, arranged in dense panicle-like clusters. Growing 30 to 200 centimeters tall with a single erect stem that is often reddish and finely striated, it develops a distinctive branching structure. Its leaves are widely lanceolate, 4 to 13 centimeters long and intricately 2-pinnately divided with sharply toothed lobes. Each plant contains both pistillate and disk flowers, with 6 to 25 pistillate flowers and 15 to 40 disk flowers per cluster.

Habitat: Disturbed moist sites

Bloom period: Jul-Nov

Elevation: < 2200 m

Bioregions: NCoRO, GV, CW, SCo, WTR, SnBr, GB, DMtns

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.