Mugwort

Information on Mugwort

Common Name: Mugwort
Scientific Name: Artemisia vulgaris
Irish Name: Mongach meisce
Family Group: Asteraceae
Distribution: View Map (Courtesy of the BSBI)
Flowering Period


Click for list of all flowering by month
Mugwort is not easily confused with other wild plants on this web site.


This is a tall perennial, reaching over 120cm, which grows on waste places, embankments and dry banks.  It is graceful rather than beautiful with silky, reddish–stemmed spikes of dull green leaves, the lower of which are deeply pinnate, the upper being lanceolate and alternate.  The underside of the leaves is silvery and woolly.  The flowers consist of tiny tubular rayless florets, 2-3mm across, in reddish-brown heads which are carried in tapering, leafy racemes, their stalks emerging from the leaf axils.  They flower from May to September.  This is a native plant belonging to the family Asteraceae.

My first record of this plant is from 2007 on Dún Laoghaire Pier, Co Dublin and I photographed it there at that time and also at Kilmore Quay, Co Wexford also in 2007. 

If you are satisfied you have correctly identified this plant, please submit your sighting to the National Biodiversity Data Centre

Mugwort is recommended by 17th century apothecary and herbalist, Nicholas Culpeper as follows  ..  'a very slight infusion is excellent  for all disorders of the stomach, prevents sickness after meals and creates an appetite, but if made too strong, it disgusts the taste'.. 'The infusion drank morning and evening for some time helps hysterics, obstruction of the spleen and weakness of the stomach'. And he also gives this advice  'It is admirable against surfeits…..':

Mugwort is an ingredient in many herbal teas now widely available. 

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