Old-man

Artemisia abrotanum, commonly known as southernwood, old man, lad's love or boy's love, is a semi-evergreen aromatic shrub in the family Asteraceae thought to be native to southern Europe and southwestern Asia but long cultivated throughout temperate Eurasia. It typically grows 60 to 120 cm tall, with woody lower stems and herbaceous, much-branched upper growth that often dies back partially in winter. The foliage is the chief ornamental feature: finely divided into thread-like, pinnate or bipinnate, grey-green to silvery segments that emit a strong, pleasantly bitter, lemony-camphoraceous fragrance when crushed. In cultivation the plant rarely flowers freely; when it does, the small, dull yellowish, nodding flower heads are borne in loose terminal panicles in late summer. It has been cultivated in monastery gardens, cottage gardens and herb gardens since at least the Middle Ages, where it was traditionally grown as a strewing herb, moth repellent and medicinal plant. It is closely related to wormwood (A. absinthium) and tarragon (A. dracunculus).