Artemisia glacialis

Artemisia glacialis L. (Asteraceae), the glacier wormwood or génépi des glaciers, is a small aromatic perennial herb of the high European Alps, occurring on siliceous rocks, scree and stable moraines between roughly 2,400 and 3,500 m elevation in France, Switzerland, Italy and Austria. The plant forms low silvery cushions 5-15 cm tall arising from a woody rootstock. The crowded leaves are deeply palmate-digitate, divided into three to five narrow linear lobes, and are densely covered with appressed silvery-silky hairs giving the foliage a luminous grey-white appearance. Small ovoid yellow flower heads about 5-7 mm across are crowded into a short terminal raceme; each head contains numerous tubular florets surrounded by silky-villous phyllaries. The whole plant is strongly aromatic, releasing a bittersweet camphoraceous odour. It is rigorously protected throughout its range as a vulnerable alpine endemic.