City Herbs, Part One: Mugwort
© Leda Meredith
Sometimes the herb you need most is not something imported from the rainforest or nursed along under plant lights, but something that's been at your doorstep all along. It's a plant that manages to thrive, as you do, in an urban environment. Nature is not something you have to buy a house in the country or take an expensive vacation in order to experience. It is all around you.
In this series of articles I will be introducing you to herbs and edible plants that are common in cities and suburbs. Read the article, grab a field guide, and step outside your front door. The green allies you've been seeking are wondering what took you so long.
A note on harvesting wild plants in urban environments: harvest at least 50 feet away from the street and/or uphill from traffic. Make sure you have permission from the property owner, or are aware of the park regulations in your area. Alliums (field garlic, ramps, etc.) should be harvested at twice that distance because they collect metals and toxins (useful for cleaning up polluted soils, but not what you want for dinner). In general, it is helpful to know that fruits and seeds collect fewer toxins than leaves and stems, which in turn collect fewer toxins than roots.
Artemisia vulgaris
You've seen this plant even if you weren't aware of it. Mugwort takes over parking lots, colonizes unweeded areas of the park, pokes through fences. It is only a few inches high in early spring, up to six feet by the time it goes to seed in the fall, but at any time of year you will know it by its silvery white undersides that are a bright contrast to its green topsides, and its unique, spicy, musty fragrance when its leaves are crushed. Here is a botanical identification guide.
Artemisia vulgaris is a tall-growing herbaceous perennial frequently rising 3 feet or more in height, which spreads both by rhizome and seed. Mugwort can be easily identified by the silvery-white undersides of its leaves, its downy stems, and its unique, spicy fragrance which distinguishes it from other Artemisias it is related to such as Sweet Annie (A. annua) and Wormwood (A. absinthium). The stalked leaves are dark green on the upper surface, lower surface greyish-white. Leaves are entire or once or twice pinnately lobed, the segments being lance shaped and pointed. The stalkless upper leaves are less divided. The inconspicuous green flowers are in small oval heads and are arranged in terminal panicles that arch downward on the otherwise upright stems. The flowers appear in late summer and early fall.
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