Southernwood, Lads Love, Artemisia abrotanum

Artemisia is a big plant family and all of them are used for healing, magic, against insects and in cooking and brewing. In garden terms there are two types: one is the sprawling untidy ones the other is the neat decorative shrubs. Southernwood is a tidy decorative shrub, well worth in the flower garden and suitable of holding other more ‘floppy’ plants up.

Southernwood was a highly valued medicinal plant in the Middle Ages. It works similar to other wormwoods, is a bitter digestive herb which was used as an antiseptic, to treat the liver, the spleen and the stomach. It is said to kill intestinal worms.

It is a powerful insect repellent and was placed in cupboards and wardrobes to keep moths away, for its scent it can be used in potpourris and sachets or sleep pillows.

Southernwood was as well used as a culinary herb and can be used as a yellow dye for wool.

Full sun, well drained soil; grows to one by one meter.

Other common names: lad’s love, southern wormwood, old man, boy’s love, oldman wormwood, lover’s plant, appleringie, garderobe, Our Lord’s wood, maid’s ruin, garden sagebrush, European sage, sitherwood, lemon plant,tangerine southernwood, Eberreis (German), aurone (French), abrótano macho (Spanish), åbrodd (Swedish).