4 September 2024
Remaining weekend I realized this staff of tall crops in Schenley Park with a distinctly Christmas tree form, proven above. They aren’t stunning, they’re no doubt weeds, and they’re thriving in a spot the place deer have eaten the entire non-poisonous local crops. Those are both toxic or unpalatable.
I took a closeup of the leaves and requested Image This to spot it: Candy wormwood (Artemisia annua), local to temperate Asia.
Crops within the Artemisia genus style sour and their overwhelmed foliage and stems have a robust odor. Deer in finding it extraordinarily unpalatable and will inform from some distance away that it smells too unsightly to manner.
Crops within the Artemisia genus steadily have medicinal homes. Candy wormwood (A. annua) comprises artemisinin which used to be found out in 1972 and is used to regard malaria. Sadly the malarial parasite in Southeast Asia has advanced artemisinin resistance so the drug can not be used on my own to treatment the illness.
Candy wormwood’s shut relative commonplace mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) additionally has a wide selection of intended pharmacological makes use of. Those makes use of most probably account for the plant’s presence in North The usa. The Pittsburgh space has various it!
One more reason why candy wormwood, particularly, is also thriving this yr is that mature crops are relatively drought resistant — and we’re in a drought.
Drought and deer this summer season have blended to depart Pittsburgh with such a lot of weeds.