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Artemisia afra
Also called Wild Wormwood
Artemisia afra, African wormwood, is a common, shrubby wild perennial of southern and eastern Africa that grows in clumps of 0.5 to 2 metres. It thrives in damp soil by streams and forest edges, so it needs consistent moisture and cannot be treated like a dry-climate herb.
Artemisia afra, the African wormwood, is a common species of the genus Artemisia in Africa, with a wide distribution from South Africa to areas reaching to the North and East, as far north as Ethiopia.
Artemisia afra grows across a wide geographic area, including Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and Namibia. It grows primarily in areas that are damp, such as by the side of streams, and also in transitional areas between ecosystems. It grows at the elevations of between 20 and 2440. It can be found on slopes, stream-sides, and forest margins. It is most commonly found in the months of March, April and May. 88.4% of the time it was found, it was preserved. 48.0% of the time it was found, it was found in South Africa, 14.4% it was found in Tanzania, and 9.6% of the time, it was found in Kenya.
It has been used for many things. It has been used as a blood purifier, used to make bitter tea, and to treat every disease under the sun. People would put fresh leaves into nostrils to clear blocked nasal passages. Hot leaves were bound over sprains. It has been ground into a powder to deter ants. Moths, insects, and fleas probably don't like it too, as it has been used as a repellent. It has been used to treat malaria, which lacks scientific evidence, and the study found no interesting compounds, including artemisinin, which is used to treat malaria. The leaves have been put in socks to help treat sweaty feet.
Southernwood · Absinthium · White Mugwort · Sweet sagewort · Hedge Artemisia · Chinese Mugwort · Biennial wormwood · Coastal sagebrush · Capillary Artemisia · Carruth's sagewort · Douglas' sagewort · Tarragon
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Artemisia afra by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
