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Mugwort, Artemisia vulgaris, is a very weedy perennial herb plant that quickly grows into a five-foot-high thicket by the summer. A good way to identify this plant is to turn over one of the highly lobed alternate leaves. The color is a light grey version of the upper surface.

The underside of Mugwort Leaf

While the previous year’s crop disappears over the winter, it regenerates new growth along the ground from the rhizomes in early spring.

Mugwort may be confused with other plants, such as our native asters or goldenrod.

Native plant (left) and Mugwort (right) in Early Spring

In the winter, carefully examine the shape and underside of any remaining dried leaves to avoid confusing the plants with goldenrods, asters, evening primrose, or unrecognizable plants until they can be properly identified.

A good time to address mugwort is in the early winter when the plants are dry and brittle. First, break off and bag the seedheads for disposal, then uproot the stems during a thaw.

While seeds develop in late summer through early fall, they will begin to drop after a frost, a snowfall, or by mid-January.  The plant tops no longer carry seeds by February. At this stage, the seeds are in the ground where a small percentage will germinate.

Another time to uproot this weed is after a soaking rain in early spring.

Do not bother to mow mugwort. Someone did mow in early summer when the plants were about four feet high. They came back to their original height within one month. At the same time, in areas where plants had been uprooted, they went through the entire summer with much less growth.

Because new growth is primarily along the rhizome, be sure to remove the entire root. The trick is to remove the whole root, the rhizomes of which may grow to two or more feet long.

Mugwort’s Lateral Roots or Rhizomes

Since the rhizomes lie only an inch or two beneath the surface, they normally dry out when exposed to drying conditions above the ground. Slide a spading fork just beneath the plants, tilt the fork up, then flip the dirt with the rhizomes facing up so the roots are exposed to the air to dry.

From July through early August, an excellent method for removing a large stand of mugwort (refer to the first photo at the top of this page) is to straddle a section with your feet placed three feet (3′) apart. Grab up to a dozen or more stems with both hands, no more than 1 foot above the ground, and shift your weight from side to side with tension on the bundle. As long as the ground is slightly moist, roots should give way as you sway to the other side. Repeat until all the roots have released from the area. Squeeze out the clumps of soil or hit the roots against bare ground to expose them to the elements.

If a section of rhizome remains in the ground and a thick new stem grows from it later on, while the soil is moist, use heavy-duty lineman’s pliers at the ground level with the same side-to-side motion to extract it.

Follow up by seeding the cleared area with aggressive native plants such as switchgrass, goldenrod, common milkweed, and/or evening primrose. Shade from trees and shrubs should also help prevent mugwort growth.

We pulled out all the mugwort plants in front and behind a park sign and laid down 2-mil black plastic sheeting secured with 6″ landscape staples. Then we covered the entire area behind the sign with four inches of wood chips. Some mugwort returned under the sign without the plastic sheeting.

Conclusion: Black 2-mil non-porous plastic sheeting plus a thick layer of wood chips successfully killed the mugwort rhizomes. Wood chips alone worked better than nothing, but not as well as with black plastic or a large tarp secured with 6″ long garden landscape staples. The best time to cover with plastic or a tarp is the beginning of summer, to be removed after three months, or by the end of summer.