Sand Wormwood

(Artemisia arenaria,) a subshrub of the family Compositae. The sand wormwood is 20–100 cm tall. The stems are woody at the base, and the vegetative shoots are shortened. The green leaves, which are slightly fleshy and almost glabrous, are dissected into linear-lanceolate terminal lobes. The lower leaves have long petioles, and the remaining leaves are sessile. The ovate heads are sessile or have shortened stems; they are gathered into spreading panicles. Sand wormwood grows on the sandy steppes and coasts of the Balkan Peninsula. In the USSR it is found along the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea and in western Ciscaucasia. In the Caspian and Aral regions there is a related species, A. tschernieviana, which is sometimes grouped together with sand wormwood. Both species grow rapidly and stabilize loose sands, forming only slightly fertile pastures.