[8] The German cognate Wermut is the source of the term vermouth, used in French and English to describe a kind of wine traditionally flavoured with wormwood.

Leaves are spirally arranged, greenish-grey colored above, white below, covered with silky silvery-white trichomes, and bearing minute oil-producing glands.

[5] A. absinthium grows naturally on uncultivated arid ground, on rocky slopes, and at the edge of footpaths and fields.

It prefers soil rich in nitrogen, and can be propagated by ripened cuttings taken in spring or autumn in temperate climates, or by seeds in nursery beds.

These two short cultivars are very similar and more silver than typical British absinthium material and probably derive from southern Europe.

Essential oils make up 0.2 to 0.8% and contain (-) - thujone, (+) - isothujone, thujyl alcohol and its esters, chamazulene and other mono- and sesquiterpenes.

[17] Artemisia absinthium is claimed to have antifungal, neuroprotective, insecticidal, antimicrobial, anthelmintic, acaricidal, antimalarial, antidepressant, and hepatoprotective properties.

[19][20][21][22] Wormwood was traditionally relatively common as a bittering spice in farmhouse brewing in Denmark, and to some extent Estonia.

[25] Wormwood clippings and cuttings are added to chicken nesting boxes to repel lice, mites, and fleas.

[17] As of 2020[update] a company named EcoflorAgro is investing heavily into increasing the planted area of this strain, hoping to commercialize it to a degree attempted – but never achieved due to unreliable supply – for other botanical insecticides before.

Richard Mabey describes Culpeper's entry on this bitter-tasting plant as "stream-of-consciousness" and "unlike anything else in the herbal", and states that it reads "like the ramblings of a drunk".

In the apocalyptic Book of Revelation ending the Bible, the star named "Wormwood" falls to earth and turns a third of its waters bitter.