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Wormwood



         


Asteraceae.

It comprises hardy herbs and sub-shrubs known for their volatile oils. They grow in temperate climates of the northern hemisphere, usually in dry or semi-dry habitats. The fernlike leaves of many species are covered with white hairs.

It contains many well known species, such as Roman wormwood, Sagebrush, Tarragon, Mugwort, and Southernwood. The aromatic leaves of many of these species are medicinal, some are used for flavoring, and some are important range species. All types of wormwood have an extremely bitter taste. Occasionally some of the species are called sages and cause confusion with the Salvia sages in the Lamiaceae.

Artemisia abrotanum and the artemisias that are lumped together as 'Dusty Miller,' and the wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) used to flavor the liqueur Absinthe.

A few wormwoods are garden plants, used for bordering.

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Wormwoods

Common wormwood or green ginger (Artemisia absinthium) was used to repel fleas and moths, and in brewing (wormwood beer, wormwood wine). The aperitif vermouth (derived from the German word Wermut = wormwood) is a wine flavored with aromatic herbs, but originally with wormwood. It is also used medically as a tonic, stomachic, febrifuge and anthelmintic. It is native to Europe and Siberia and is now widespread in the United States.

The bitterness of all plant parts also led to its use by wet-nurses for weaning infants from the breast, as in this speech from Romeo and Juliet Act I, Scene 3:

'As bitter as wormwood' is a common expression.

Nurse: ...
And she [Juliet] was wean'd,--I never shall forget it,--
Of all the days of the year, upon that day:
For I had then laid wormwood to my dug,
...

Roman wormwood (Artemesia pontica) is a flavouring ingredient that provides the psychoactive chemical thujone in the alcoholic drink absinthe.

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Associations in human culture

Wormwood (absinthos in the Greek text) is the 'name of the star' in the Book of Revelation (8:11) that John envisions as cast by the angel and falling into the waters, making them undrinkably bitter. Besides in the Book of Revelation we find up to 8 further references in the Bible showing that Wormwood was a common herb of the area and its awful taste was known, as a drinkable preparation applied for specific reasons. This makes sense since the people of those days lived so much closer to the ground and must have appreciated the effects of wormwood to control parasites.

Some authors thought that Chernobyl translates as Wormwood (the correct translation is mugwort, see Chernobyl: Name origin), which has led some (notably the authors of Left Behind) to theorize that this is a coded reference to radioactive contamination.

Wormwood is a junior devil in The Screwtape Letters a novel by C. S. Lewis on human temptation.

Miss Wormwood is Calvin's teacher in Calvin and Hobbes, a former daily comic strip by Bill Watterson. This character is reportedly named after the Screwtape Letters character mentioned above.

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Species






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