Prairie Sage

Artemisia ludoviciana is a North American flowering plant in the daisy family, Asteraceae, known as silver wormwood, western mugwort, Louisiana wormwood, white sagebrush, lobed cud-weed, prairie sage and gray sagewort. It is a rhizomatous perennial whose stems and foliage are covered in woolly grey or white hairs, with narrow clusters of nodding flower heads from July to October. It is widespread across most of the United States, Canada and Mexico, on dry slopes, in canyons, open pine woods and dry prairies. The page calls it of great cultural significance in many Indigenous North American traditions and quotes the University of Saskatchewan's Traditional Garden website calling it one of the four sacred medicines, with tobacco, cedar and sweetgrass. The Dakota use it in smudging rituals to protect against malevolent spirits, and the Cree and Blackfoot use it in sweat lodges and the sun dance. The Meskwaki and Potawatomi make a tea for sore throat and tonsillitis. It is also grown as an ornamental and can spread aggressively.