Vern.: Bang (Pushto).

Artemisia tournefortiana Reichb., Icon. Bot. Exot. 1: 6, t. 5. 1824; DC., Prodr. 6: 119. 1837; Boiss., Fl. Or. 3: 372. 1875; C. B. Clarke, Comp. Ind. 163. 1876; Hook. f., Fl. Brit. Ind. 3: 324. 1881; Burkill, Work. List Fl. Pl. Bal. 54. 1901; Pamp. in Nuov. Giorn. Bot. Ital. n. s. 34: 705. 1927; ibid, 46: 585. 1939; Rech. f., Symb. Afghan. 2: 56. 1955; Kitam., Fl. Afghan. 389. 1960; Poljakov in Schischk. & Bobrov, Fl. USSR 26: 488. 1961; R. R. Stewart, l. c. 720; Cullen in P. H . Davis, Fl. Turk. 5: 317. fig. 15.13. 1975; Tsiang & Li, Icon. Corm. Sin. 4: 531. fig. 6476. 1975; B. D. Naithiani in Hajara et al., l.c. 45.

An annual or biennial glabrous, non-aromatic herb with up to 1.8 (-2.5) m tall, erect, striate, unbranched, pale-green or purple tinged stem. Rootstock vertical, 8 – 10 cm long, c. 10 – 15 mm thick. Basal leaves with 3 – 6 cm long petioles; lamina oblong-ovate to elliptic, 6 – 15 x 4 – 8 (-10) cm, 2 (-3)-pinnatisect, rachis sparsely lobulate, primary segments remote, narrowly elliptic-lanceolate, 2 – 5 x 0.8 – 2.4 cm, acute, secondary segments 6 – 15 x 4 – 8 mm, very narrowly elliptic, serrate to ± pinnatifid, median and upper leaves gradually smaller, subsessile to sessile, uppermost in floral region pinnatifid or lanceolate and entire. Capitula heterogamous, numerous, erect, hemispherical-oblong, 2.5 – 3 x c. 2 mm, almost sessile, congested in oblong, 30 – 70 x 1.5 – 5 cm, strict, contracted panicle with ascending to erect-appressed spicate branches. Involucre 3-seriate, phyllaries glabrous, outermost oblong, c. 1.5 mm long, inner ones subequal, 2 – 2.75 x 1 – 1.5 mm, widely scarious on both sides of green midrib, obtuse. Receptacle conical, c. 1 mm long, glabrous. Florets numerous, all fertile, greenish-yellow; marginal florets 10-25 (-30), with c. 1 mm long, glandular, 2-toothed corolla; disc-florets 9-35 (-40), bisexual, with c. 1.25 mm long, ± clavate-tubular, basally glandulose, 5-toothed corolla. Cypselas oblong-oblanceolate, 0.8 – 1 mm long, finely striate, brown.

Fl. Per.: July-September.

Type: B-Willd. (Exact type locality is not known but erroneously attributed to New Zealand).

Common in subalipine regions of Hindukush and N.W. Himalayas in Indo-Pakistan subcontinent from 2-3000 m in sandy-clay soils along field borders and cultivated fields as a weed; Distribution: Turkey, USSR, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, China and N. America.

This species can easily be distinguished by its Amaranthus like inflorescence.