Artemisia

French tarragon is the culinary clone of Artemisia dracunculus, grown for the pungent anise-like flavor and aroma of its narrow, glossy green leaves - the defining herb of béarnaise sauce and classic French fines herbes. It is a shrubby, rhizome-spreading perennial that rarely flowers and sets effectively sterile seed, so it is propagated only by cuttings or division rather than from seed. Unlike its wild parent species and the inferior Russian tarragon, this 'Sativa' selection holds the true tarragon flavor.

An aromatic, woody-based perennial grown above all for its finely divided, silky silver-grey foliage and pungent, bitter scent. Native across Europe, North Africa, and western and central Asia and widely naturalized beyond it, it carries small, dull-yellow flowers in nodding sprays in late summer above a soft mound of intricate, dissected leaves. It is the classic silver-foliage plant for contrast in a sunny, well-drained border. Note: this is the famous bitter herb of absinthe and vermouth, and it contains thujone, which is toxic in quantity, so it is grown for its foliage and never for eating.