Puju (Puju)

Mugwort, Artemisia vulgaris, plant with a long and... legendary past. Alternative names tell interesting stories: English: sailor’s tobacco (fairly obvious), naughty man (used in the Middle-Ages to flavor beer, and perhaps for its hallucinogenic properties), old uncle Henry (pass); Estonian: ema-rohi, mother medicine, because reputed to rotate breach fetuses or, perhaps more useful on occasions, abort them; langetõverohi, epilepsy medicine (the plant contains thujone, found in absinthe, but this is also believed to cause epilepsy); and sala-koi-rohi, mysterymonger drug or secrecy-fogey-drug (hallucinogen again). It also gave its name to the city of Chernobyl (Ukrainian: Чорнобиль = mugwort, literally, чорний чорний [black], билля [grass/stalks], although the word could also have come from a personal name, Чьрнобыль [Čǐrnobylǐ]). Lastly, modern-day witches use it for astral travel, saving considerable sums of money in airport taxes.