@purpleinopp...hey Tiffany any ideas??? have you seen this in your Al. travels

Hi Ginger, thanks for the mention. I think I've pulled some of those up before, but couldn't be any help with a name. I've been watching this curiously though!

I am not good at all at trying to identify plants by comparing photo's but it reminds me a lot of a lawn weed/wildlfower that grows here and I will say that this is only a very wild guess and probably way off the correct ID:

Carolina Cranesbill (Geranium carolinianum)

http://uswildflowers.com/detai...

Or maybe Geranium dissectum? Cut-Leafed Cranesbill (Geranium dissectum)

Artemesia sure looks to be the correct ID.Check this out: http://nativeplantsfromala.blo...

And, scroll down this page for photo's leaves for comparison to your plant: http://hermionesgarden.blogspo...

plantladylin,
Well my yard is no stranger to those! But this is not Carolina Geranium, I just picked a lovely bouquet of those earlier this morning?

Yeah, I realized that it wasn't the Carolina Geranium and went back to the ID of Artemesia vulgaris.

plantladylin,
That picture from native plants of Alabama certainly looks exactly like it to me.

plantladylin,
What really throws me is the second site describes it a growing three to four feet tall and shows it blooming. Now it may grow that tall, and it may bloom, and it just gets cut or pulled before it ever reaches that height, but I have never seen anything to indicate to me this plant would do that. Out of the hundreds and hundreds of them in the yard at my Mom's I would have thought at least one would have lived to reach the blooming stage. These plants are just a couple of inches tall, I am about ready to just call it mugwort out of desperation. I am going to keep my eye on it this summer if that house doesn't sell and just see what it does, I am going to pull all I can and leave a few for testing.

Maybe you could pot one or two up and place them in different light situations, with one receiving full sun, the other shade .... just to see what the different growth traits might be. Maybe one with more light will grow taller and bloom? I'll be curious to hear the outcome so I'll be watching this thread.

No need to pot them up, there are plenty growing already, some in sun and some in shade, hundreds at least. I will keep an eye on them or at least till I get a positive ID.

Seedfork said:I have noticed no scent on these plants.

Try crushing a leaf......

The extension agent sent the photos to a plant specialist at Auburn University, and it was confirmed that this plant is a variety of Mugwort. For any further ID they said I would need to take a sample to the extension office. That will have to wait a while.

I am afraid that what you have is Mugwort. If you only have a few, dig them out, try to get all the roots, they are very long, and every single little piece will grow a new plant. I had them after my house was renovated. The Koreans eat them when they just grow back in Spring. The previous owner of my house had a Korean wife. Maybe she planted them. They very quickly spread through the whole back yard, literally wall to wall mugwort. It was awful. I had then a professional gardener neighbor and he tried to help me get rid of them with Roundup, thinking that I did not spray correctly. Then he and his wife moved away, mugworts were still there. I then did research on the Internet and finally found that Lontrel (clopyralid) had successfully killed them in someone's else's garden. I was desperate. I really do not like to use herbicide, was trying to dig them out before I tried to spray with Roundup. At that time only professional gardeners could buy it. Fortunately I belong to a local garden club and someone helped me buy it. Very expensive. I think I paid $200.00 for it for 1 quart (the smallest size available). I wore a mask on my face, (wore goggles and breathing apparatus) and wore protective gloves and clothing and also some kind of socks over my shoes. Very early in the morning, when no wind was blowing, I sprayed very carefully on the leaves. Lontrel killed all of them. Amazing. Just one application. When I dug to plant my roses, I saw the roots of the mugworts, all black. Amazing. Mugwort is also known for herbal medicine. When I went to China in 2010, I saw them there too! So some people like them, for food (soup, etc., also for tea)-

I am going to try to work with the extension agent when I get the time. Hope to be able to control it with out having to use long lasting herbicides. I seem to remember reading about clopyralid, best I remember it is very slow to degrade. Thanks for the post, I know I have my work cut out for me in trying to control this mess, but I will certainly try to make clopyralid a last choice. I am fortunate that I only had a small section invaded by this plant so far in one of my beds, only half a dozen plants or so. I dug them out as carefully as I could, but as you know the roots are so fragile it is almost impossible to get them the first few tries. The house my parents left us however really has a serious invasion of Mugwort, in the flower beds and the lawn, just no way to dig it out over there. I will try a broadleaf herbicide that is faster to breakdown and hope I can control it with the supervision of the county agents instructing me on the spray schedule.
I did find this info I remembered reading about clopyralid: I do a lot of composting of grass clippings and was concerned about picking up grass that had been treated with it.
http://ohioline.osu.edu/aex-fa...

I was taught to spray with the nozzle very close to the leaves so the Lontrel is not distributed all over the place. It took me about a week. Very tedious and hot in the outfit. That was also the way I used the Roundup (without the outfit). My neighbor was more generous with the spraying of Roundup, but it still did not help. I bought and used a prayer with a long wand-nozzle for the mugwort and I did not rinse it and have not used it for anything else. I think you'll be successful in just digging out the few plants in your garden. I also have a few in the front yard, and I dig them out every time I see them there, trying to get all the roots. I even had to dig out my rose bush, because the mugwort was right next to it. I made sure there were no roots left and replanted the rose bush. It is still alive. Good luck with your fight with mugwort--

When you are ready to remove the mugwort, you may want to consider using white vinegar as a weed killer.

http://www.naturalnews.com/035...

http://www.wikihow.com/Kill-We...

I do have some mugwort that I can try the vinegar on, but lots of it is in the grass, so I am hoping to use a broadleaf spray that will not kill the grass. So I won't be able to use Roundup there either. Hoping something like Weed-B-Gon will work.

Other chemicals that may or may not work better than one like Weed B Gone are:
triclopyr - it's in ortho Chickweed and Clover control, and Brush B Gone
carfentrazone - its in Fertilome Weed Free Zone.

Leftwood,
Thanks!