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Artemisia campestris Subsp. campestris (L) ~ Field Southernwood

NOMENCLATURE

Artemisia : see A. vulgaris.

campestris : of the pasture, from flat land.

Southernwood : see A. abrotanum.

PREVIOUS NAMES : A. forwoodii (Wats). A. camporum (Rydb). A. bourgeauana (Rydb).

BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION

TYPE : perennial scentless plant with creeping woody stock producing tufts of short non-flowering shoots & decumbent then ascending >or< glabrous flowering shoots 20-60cm, >or< woody below, paniculately branched above. Ch. LEAVES : basal & lower stem leaves 2-3 x pinnate, stalked, auricled. Upper stem leaves less divided & shorter stalked upwards, the uppermost linear, entire, sessile, ultimate segments long linear, 1mm wide, mucronulate, at first silky hairy on both sides, later glabrous. FLOWERS : heads 3-4mm diam., broadly ovoid >or< erect, numerous in a narrow elongated racemose panicle. Bracts ovate to oblong, green or red, glabrous, with scarious margins. Receptacle glabrous. Flowers yellow or red the marginal female, fertile, the central hermaphrodite but mostly sterile. Wind pollinated. Fl. 8-9. FRUIT : achenes glabrous. 2n=18, 36.

HABITAT : breckland heaths, sand dunes.

DISTRIBUTION : S.W. Norfolk, E. Cambridge. Naturalised in one locality in S. Wales Casual elsewhere. Casual near Belfast.

SUBSPECIES : Subsp.boreal is. Subsp. maritima. Linnaeus : "Infusion in pleurisy." Dr. John Hill : "It disposes a person to sleep."