Artemisia santonicum (saline wormwood) is a species of wormwood native to eastern Europe and western Asia, from Austria east through the Balkans, Ukraine and southern Russia to Kazakhstan, and also through Turkey to Iran.
There are two subspecies, which overlap in parts of southeast Europe:
Saline wormwood is a herbaceous perennial plant or subshrub growing to 20âÂÂ60 cm tall. It has strongly aromatic foliage, usually greyish-green to whitish-green, but can become glabrous green with wear. The leaves are deeply twice to thrice pinnatifid, with narrow, linear segments 0.7âÂÂ1 mm broad, and are covered on both sides with a dense coat of white hairs. The small, oblong flower heads are 1âÂÂ2 mm diameter, are of a yellowish or brownish tint; they are produced in September to October, and are arranged in racemes, sometimes drooping, sometimes erect.
It has often been erroneously reported as the closely related north European Artemisia maritima.
It occurs on saline soils, being found on the drier parts of saltmarshes, brackish ditches, saltpans, sea cliffs, and coastal shingle.