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Low toxicity🍽️ Edible💊 Medicinal

🌿 Genepi (black wormwood / alpine wormwood)

Artemisia genipi / Artemisia umbellata · Asteraceae

🏔️ Mountains
🧠 To remember it“Silver genepi doesn't grow at your feet, you have to climb” — silver cushion and extreme altitude go hand in hand with true genepi.
Genepi (black wormwood / alpine wormwood) — Artemisia genipi / Artemisia umbellata

🔍 Identify it without mistakes

Small high-altitude perennial plant, 5 to 20 cm, forming a silvery cushion with finely divided, silky leaves (fine hairs), giving off a very characteristic bitter aromatic scent when crushed. Small yellowish flowers in clustered heads. Grows in scree and rocky meadows above 2000 m, protected species in several mountain ranges, harvesting is regulated.

  1. low, silvery, and silky cushion
  2. deeply divided leaves covered in fine hairs
  3. intense bitter aromatic scent when crushed
  4. altitude typically > 2000 m
Size5-20 cm
FloweringJuly-August
Habitathigh-altitude scree and rocky meadows, Alps and Pyrenees, above 1800-2000 m

⚠️ Not to be confused with

Wormwood / Absinthe (Artemisia absinthium)none (edible as well, but in controlled doses)

To tell them apart: wormwood grows in plains and mid-mountains, taller habit and less silvery, true genepi remains a very low high-altitude cushion

🍽️ Eating it

Partsflowering tops
SeasonJuly-August
Tastevery bitter, intensely aromatic, notes of absinthe

Preparation : maceration in alcohol (traditional Alpine genepi liqueur) or light infusion; harvesting is regulated or even forbidden in certain protected areas (national parks)

💊 Healing with it

traditionally digestive and tonic after meals (wormwood family, related to absinthe)

Level of evidence : traditional use — Documented Alpine traditional use, no specific EMA monograph for the species

⚠️ contains thujone like absinthe, consume in moderation, not recommended for prolonged or concentrated use, contraindicated during pregnancy

🪓 Other bushcraft uses

  • emblematic Alpine liqueur (Chartreuse, artisanal genepi)
Sources (2)

No entry replaces a certain identification in the field, or medical advice. When in doubt: don't eat it. If ingestion is suspected: poison control or 112/911.