Yin Chen

Artemisia capillaris (Yin Chen, virgate wormwood, capillary wormwood) is a perennial subshrub in the Asteraceae family, typically growing 40 to 100 centimeters tall, with woody-based stems and finely dissected, hair-like foliage that gives the plant its common and species names. Basal and lower leaves are bipinnatisect to tripinnatisect with thread-like ultimate segments, while upper stem leaves are reduced and simpler. The herbage is grayish-green and lightly aromatic when crushed. From mid summer to autumn the plant produces large diffuse panicles of numerous small, nodding, ovoid flower heads about 1.5 to 2 millimeters in diameter; each head contains tubular yellowish disc florets enclosed by overlapping involucral bracts with thin scarious margins. The young, tender spring shoots, harvested before flowering and dried, constitute the principal medicinal material. Native to East Asia, including China, Japan, Korea, and the Russian Far East, growing on sandy riverbanks, slopes, and waste ground.