Subshrubs, (20-)40-150(-200) cm tall, with branched, woody rhizome; all parts densely to sparsely puberulent or tomentose, sparser with age, sometimes glabrescent. Leaves sessile or subsessile; basal leaf blades entire or 2- or 3-lobed at tip. Middle stem leaves linear-lanceolate, elliptic-lanceolate, or linear, (1.5-)3-7(-10) × (0.1-)0.2-0.6(-1) cm, entire or with apex 3-partite or -cleft, or with 1(or 2) small lateral lobes. Uppermost leaves and leaflike bracts linear or lanceolate, 5-30 × 1-2 mm. Synflorescence a broad to racemelike leafy panicle; branches ascending to erect, sometimes appressed, to 10 cm. Capitula remote to approximate, nodding; peduncles curved, to 5 mm. Involucre subglobose, ovoid, or hemispheric, 2-5 mm in diam.; phyllaries glabrescent, scarious margin broad, outer phyllaries oblong or lanceolate, inner orbicular-oblong. Marginal female florets 6-10[-15]; corolla 0.5-1 mm, glandular, 2-fid. Disk florets 4-14, male; corolla campanulate, 2-2.5, 5-lobed. Achenes obovoid or obovoid-ellipsoid. Fl. and fr. Jul-Oct. 2n = 18, 36, 54, 72, 90.

Artemisia dracunculus is cultivated as a culinary herb in Europe and used as a source of winter fodder for sheep in Xizang.

Dry slopes, steppes, semidesert steppes, forest steppes, forest margins, waste areas, roadsides, terraces, subalpine meadows, meadow steppes, dry river valleys, rocky slopes, saline-alkaline soils; 500-3800 m. Gansu, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, N Shaanxi, N Shanxi, Xinjiang, W Xizang [Afghanistan, N India, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, N and W Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan; C and SW Asia, C, E, and W Europe, North America].