39. Artemisia caruifolia Buchanan-Hamilton ex Roxburgh, Fl. Ind., ed. 1832, 3:422. 1832 (as carnifolia).
青蒿 qing hao
Herbs, annual or biennial, 30-150 cm, much branched, glabrous. Basal and lowermost stem leaves usually withering before anthesis. Middle stem leaves: petiole 5-10 mm; leaf blade oblong, oblong-ovate, or elliptic, 5-15 × 2-5.5 cm, abaxially green, 2- or 3-pinnatisect; segments 4-6 pairs, pectinate or lanceolate; lobules pectinate, acutely or acuminately serrate; rachis serrate. Uppermost leaves and leaflike bracts 1(or 2)-pinnatisect and pectinatisect. Synflorescence a moderately broad panicle. Capitula many; peduncle slender, 2-6 mm, nodding. Involucre hemispheric, 3.5-7 mm in diam.; phyllaries oblong, radiately spreading or not, scarious margin yellow. Marginal female florets 10-20; corolla ca. 1.5 mm. Disk florets 30-40, bisexual; corolla yellowish, ca. 1.8 mm. Achenes oblong or ellipsoid, ca. 1 mm. Fl. and fr. Jun-Sep.
Riverbanks, floodlands, waysides, outer forest margins, canyons, coastal beaches; low to high elevations. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, S Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, S Shaanxi, Shandong, E Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [N India, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Nepal, N Vietnam].
As evident from the protologue’s leaf description, Roxburgh (1832, a posthumous publication) meant to use the epithet caruifolia resembling the leaves to caraway (Carum carvi. His (Hort. Beng. 61. 1814) earlier invalid publication of Artemisia caruifolia supports this assessment. Therefore, in the published epithet carnifolia, the letter n was most likely the printer’s error, i.e., the letter n is an inverted and reversed u. Furthermore, in the past the letters u and v were used interchangeably, and in the use of the epithet as carvifolia by some authors, the letter v is transcribed as u in conformity with Roxburgh’s 1814 usage.
Artemisia caruifolia contains abrotanine used in anti-inflammatory and antifebrile drugs.
