Artemisia japonicaThunb.

Oriental wormwood

WFO wfo-0000078296 Accepted WFO 2026-06 4 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–d · 3 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 3 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Artemisia japonica, photographed by 葉子
fig. a 葉子, CC0 1.0 / 2021-03-25 / obs. 120168315
Artemisia japonica, photographed by 楊富鈞
fig. b 楊富鈞, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 25343649
Artemisia japonica, photographed by Tatsutomo Chin
fig. c Tatsutomo Chin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 44507659
Artemisia japonica, photographed by 葉子
fig. d 葉子, CC0 1.0 / obs. 120168322

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 26 botanical countries

Regions where Artemisia japonica is native: Afghanistan, China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Hainan, Japan, Korea, Kuril Is., Manchuria, Nansei-shoto, Primorye, Sakhalin, Taiwan, Tibet, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, West Himalaya AfghanistanChina North-CentralChina South-CentralChina SoutheastHainanJapanManchuriaPrimoryeSakhalinTaiwanTibetAssamBangladeshEast HimalayaIndiaLaosMyanmarNepalPakistanPhilippinesThailandVietnamWest Himalaya KoreaNansei-shoto
Native distribution of Artemisia japonica, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Afghanistan AFG ASIA-TEMPERATE
China North-Central CHN
China South-Central CHC
China Southeast CHS
Hainan CHH
Japan JAP
Korea KOR
Kuril Is. KUR
Manchuria CHM
Nansei-shoto NNS
Primorye PRM
Sakhalin SAK
Taiwan TAI
Tibet CHT
Assam ASS ASIA-TROPICAL
Bangladesh BAN
East Himalaya EHM
India IND
Laos LAO
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
Pakistan PAK
Philippines PHI
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
West Himalaya WHM

Not drawn on the map: Kuril Is.. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 5 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Artemisia japonica f. japonica
  • Artemisia japonica subsp. japonica
  • Artemisia japonica var. parviflora (Roxb. ex D.Don) Pamp.
  • Draconia japonica (Thunb.) Soják
  • Oligosporus japonicus (Thunb.) Poljakov

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.