Incienso canario, mol (Artemisia thuscula)

Small compact, highly branched shrub, up to 1 m, with erect or slightly curved branches. Leaves are herbaceous, greyish-green or silvery-green, bi-pinnatisect, 3-7 cm long, with a pungent aroma. Inflorescences are terminal and subterminal, dense, composed of numerous bronze-yellow or golden flower heads, 4 mm across. This Canary Island endemic is found in all the central and western islands, where it grows in nearly monospecific communities that rapidly colonize abandoned cultivated terraces, ploughed land, etc. This species is very common and dominant in low-lying areas and disturbed ground at mid-altitude, practically from sea level to 1,500 m. It is much used in traditional medicine, as are many other plants of the same genus; its leaves are used as a natural insecticide.