Wormwood – for PROFESSIONAL USE ONLY
Wormwood, Artemisia absinthium, is also called absinthium, absinthe wormwood, common wormwood or grand wormwood. It is one of the ingredients used to flavor absinthe liquor.
Wormwood is closely related to Southernwood, mugwort amd tarragon. It is a hardy perennial, native to Europe, including Britain.
Wormwood reaches a height of around 3 feet and will grow in any well drained light to medium soil, even soil which is nutritionally poor or very alkaline. It is tolerant of drought but will not grow in full shade.
Wormwood is a very useful plant medicinally. However, it is poisonous in large amounts and even small amounts can cause convulsions and nervous disorders – some people get a headache just from smelling it – so it is not suitable for use by anyone who is not a qualified herbal practitioner. For this reason I am not going to go into details of its uses as a remedy here.
Wormwood is a natural insecticide, but you cannot consider it an organic treatment, as it kills everything indiscriminately – including worms. Because of this, if you have a plant and decide to trim it, or cut it down, you cannot put the cuttings on the compost pile, or it will fail to develop and turn into a nasty stinking mess (because the breakdown process in compost heaps is mediated by various insects, bacteria and molluscs). Wrap them in newspaper or something and throw them in the trash.
It also produces root secretions which inhibit the growth of other plants close by, and all in all is a bit of a thug best kept out of the garden altogether, or at the very least grown in a container. If you have young children, or get visits to your garden from them, I would avoid this plant completely.
