4 Mugwort
The Mugwort, or Wormwood as it is often called, is common all over the country. It grows in waste places and by the borders of the fields, and it blooms in autumn.
You will easily recognise this plant by its greeny-white woolly flowers, with their yellow or red centres. These flowers grow in short clusters, and each little woolly head is made up of a number of separate flowers shaped like tubes. These yellow or red tubes are grouped together as in the Daisy.
The stem of the Mugwort is pale green, and has red ridges running from end to end. The leaves are very handsome. They are large and broad and feather-shaped, with big leaflets in pairs opposite each other on the stem, and there is always a single long leaflet at the end. Each of these leaflets is deeply cut round the edges into large teeth.
The back of the Mugwort leaves is covered with silvery white down, and often the green edges are curled back on to this white underside.