Herbs, annual, (40-)110-150(-200) cm tall, purple-brown, puberulent or glabrescent; capitate branches 2-5 cm. Lower and middle stem leaves: petiole 2-6 cm; leaf blade elliptic-ovate or oblong, 5-18 × 2-8 cm, 2(or 3)-pinnatisect; segments 5-8 pairs, pectinately lobulate; lobules elliptic-lanceolate, 3-5 × 3-4 mm, occasionally serrulate; rachis serrate. Uppermost leaves and leaflike bracts 1- or 2-pinnatisect or entire; bracts linear-lanceolate, serrate. Synflorescence a dense cylindric panicle, 30-70 × 1.5-5 cm; branches ascending to erect-appressed, spicate. Capitula many, erect, almost sessile, congested. Involucre ovoid or ovoid-orbicular, 1.5-2 mm in diam.; phyllaries in 3 rows, outer glabrous, widely scarious on both sides of green midrib, obtuse; receptacle conical, glabrous. Marginal female florets 10-20; corolla greenish yellow, glandular, 2-toothed. Disk florets 10-15(-35), bisexual, basally glandular. Achenes brown, ellipsoid-ovoid, 0.8-1 mm, finely striate. Fl. and fr. Aug-Nov. 2n = 18.

The name Artemisia biennis Willdenow has been misapplied to the species treated here as A. tournefortiana, e.g., in Fl. Pakistan (207: 132. 2002).

Artemisia tournefortiana is used in NW China as a source of anti-inflammatory, antifebrile, anthelmintic, and antitoxic drugs.

Hills, terraces, dry floodlands, waste fields, steppes, open forests, semi-marshlands; 800-1500 m. Xinjiang, Xizang [Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, N Pakistan; SW Asia (Caucasus, Iran, Turkey); introduced in Europe].