五月艾 wu yue ai

Herbs, perennial, or subshrubs, 80-150 cm tall, much branched, sparsely puberulent or glabrescent. Leaves shortly petiolate or ± sessile; leaf blade abaxially densely gray arachnoid tomentose, adaxially gray or yellowish tomentose or glabrescent. Lowermost leaves ovate or oblong-ovate, 6-12 × 3-8 cm, (1 or)2-pinnatipartite; distal lobes larger; segments 3 or 4 pairs, winged at midvein. Middle stem leaves ovate, oblong-ovate, or elliptic, 5-8 × 3-5 cm, (1 or)2-pinnatipartite; segments 3(or 4) pairs; distal lobe larger; lobes elliptic-lanceolate, linear-lanceolate, or linear, 10-20 × 3-5 mm; lobules deeply serrate, acute or acuminate apically. Uppermost leaves pinnatipartite; leaflike bracts 3-lobed or entire. Capitula sessile or inconspicuously pedunculate, ± erect, remote in broadly conical, almost leafless panicle with obliquely spreading, up to 18 cm long branches. Involucre ovoid, oblong-ovoid, or broadly ovoid, 3-4 × ca. 2 mm; phyllaries puberulent to glabrous. Florets 15-20, yellowish, all fertile. Marginal female florets 4-10; corolla tubular, ± glandular, 2-toothed. Disk florets 8-12, bisexual, basally glandular. Achenes brown, oblong or obovoid, ca. 1.25 mm. Fl. and fr. Aug-Oct.

Roadsides, forest margins, slopes, shrublands; low elevations to 2000 m. Anhui, Fujian, S Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, S Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, SE Nei Mongol, S Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, SE Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Philippines, N Thailand, Vietnam; North and Central America, Oceania].

Lower Taxa

• Artemisia indica var. elegantissima (Pampanini) Y. R. Ling & Humphries
• Artemisia indica var. indica