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Perennials or subshrubs, 50–120(–150) cm, strongly tarragon-scented or not aromatic; rhizomatous, caudices coarse. Stems relatively numerous, erect, green to brown or reddish brown, somewhat woody, glabrous. Leaves: proximal blades bright green and glabrous or gray-green and sparsely hairy, 5–8 cm; cauline blades bright green (gray-green in desert forms), linear, lanceolate, or oblong, 1–7 × 0.1–0.5(–0.9) cm, mostly entire, sometimes irregularly lobed, acute, usually glabrous, sometimes glabrescent (deserts). Heads in terminal or lateral, leafy, paniculiform arrays 15–45 × 6–30 cm; appearing ball-like on slender, sometimes nodding peduncles. Involucres globose, 2–3 × 2–3.5(–6) mm. Phyllaries (light brown, broadly lanceolate, membranous): margins broadly hyaline, glabrous. Florets: pistillate 6–25; functionally staminate 8–20; corollas pale yellow, 1.8–2 mm, eglandular or sparsely glandular. Cypselae oblong, 0.5–0.8 mm, faintly nerved, glabrous. 2. = 18.
Fibrous-rooted perennial 5–15 dm, the stems clustered on short, coarse rhizomes or a branching caudex; herbage glabrous or occasionally villous-puberulent; lvs narrowly linear to lance-linear, 3–8 cm × 1–6 mm, mostly entire, but occasionally some 2–5-cleft, the lower generally deciduous before flowering; infl paniculiform, usually open and ample; invol glabrous or nearly so, 2–3 mm; disk-fls sterile; achenes ellipsoid, nerveless; 2n=18. Dry open places; Ill. to Man. and Tex., s. to Yukon, B.C., and n. Mex.; also in Eurasia. July–Sept. (A. cernua; A. dracunculoides; A. glauca)
A bushy herb. It keeps growing from year to year. It grows 1.5 m high and spreads 90 cm high. The stalks are wiry and form a tangled mass. It can be 1 m high. The leaves are smooth, dark-green, glossy and narrow. They are 2.5-3.7 cm long. The leaves are opposite. The leaves have an aroma. The flowers are small and white. They are in round flower heads. These form long spikes. Often seed is not sett.
