Artemisia Absinthium - Cultivation and Uses

Cultivation and Uses

The plant can easily be cultivated in dry soil. It should be planted under bright exposure in fertile, mid-weight soil. It prefers soil rich in nitrogen. It can be propagated by ripened cuttings taken in Spring or Autumn in temperate climates, or by seeds in nursery beds. It is naturalised in some areas away from its native range, including much of North America.

This plant, and its cultivars 'Lambrook Mist' and 'Lambrook Silver' have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

The plant's characteristic odour can make it useful for making a plant spray against pests. It is used in companion planting to suppress weeds, because its roots secrete substances that inhibit the growth of surrounding plants. It can repel insect larvae when planted on the edge of the cultivated area. It has also been used to repel fleas and moths indoors.

It is an ingredient in the spirit absinthe, and is used for flavouring in some other spirits and wines, including bitters, vermouth and pelinkovac. In the Middle Ages, it was used to spice mead. In 18th century England, wormwood was sometimes used instead of hops in beer.

Wormwood is the traditional colour and flavour agent for green songpyeon, a type of dduk / tteok (Korean rice cake), eaten during the Korean thanksgiving festival of Chuseok in the autumn. Wormwood is picked in the spring when it is still young. The juice from macerated fresh (or reconstituted dry) leaves provides the colouring and flavouring ingredient in the dough prepared to make green songpyeon. The other traditional colour for these small desserts is white, made with rice flour dough without wormwood extract.

It is an additional ingredient to mint tea in Moroccan tea culture.