Herbs, annual, 15-60(-100) cm tall, purple, capitate branches 4-8 cm, sparsely glandular puberulent, fetid. Petioles of basal and lowermost stem leaves 4-5 cm. Basal leaves many; leaf blade rosulate or elliptic, 10-14 × 2-3.5 cm, 2-pinnatisect; segments more than 20 pairs; lobules pectinately lanceolate or triangularly serrate, 2-3 × 0.2-1 mm, acute apically. Lowermost and middle stem leaves: leaf blade elliptic, 6-12 × 2-4 cm, 2-pinnate; segments 5-10 pairs, 0.3-1.5 × 0.2-0.4 mm, lobulate and serrate; rachis serrate; midvein prominent. Uppermost leaves and leaflike bracts pinnately divided; lobes serrate. Capitula in dense narrow panicles, globose or hemispheric, 3-4(-5) mm in diam. Phyllaries with brown or purple-brown scarious margin. Marginal female florets 3-8. Disk florets 15-30, bisexual; corolla limb purple. Achenes oblong-obovoid. Fl. and fr. Jul-Oct.

Artemisia hedinii has anti-inflammatory, antifebrile, detoxifying, and hemostatic properties.

Grassy marshlands, floodlands, rocky slopes, waysides, outer forest margins; 1000-4800(-5000) m. Gansu, SW Nei Mongol, Qinghai, W Sichuan, N Xinjiang, Xizang, W Yunnan [N India, Nepal, N Pakistan, Tajikistan].