Field Wormwood (Artemisia campestris)
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Vascular plant > flowering plant > Herbaceous plant |
| Red List Status: | Vulnerable (Not Relevant) [VU(nr)] |
| D5 Status: | Included in the baseline Red List Index for England (Wilkins, Wilson & Brown, 2022) |
| Section 41 Status: | (not listed) |
| Taxa Included Synonym: | (none) |
| UKSI Recommended Name: | Artemisia campestris |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | L. |
| UKSI Recommended Qualifier: | (none specified) |
| Red List Citation: | in Stroh et al., 2014 |
| Notes on taxonomy/listing: | (none) |
Criteria
| Question 1: | Does species need conservation or recovery in England? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | EN at BG and Eng level, only 4 native sites & 4 extant (re-)intros |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Landscape approach could work but v difficult and, meanwhile, plant needs focussed attention to prevent extinction |
| Question 3: | At a landscape scale, would the species benefit from untargeted habitat management to increase habitat mosaics, structural diversity, or particular successional stages? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Plant would benefit from landscape-scale restoration that facilitated dispersal and allow grazed and ungrazed conditions to co-exist |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 7. Best approach adopted at appropriate scales |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Medium-high |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Structured - sufficient |
| Species Comments: | Essentially a plant of rocky places that provide niches protected from grazing |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: (Re-)Introduce plant to suitable new sites to increase resilience
Action targets: 6. Recovery solutions trialled
Action type: (Re-)introduction
Duration: 6-10 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 10 sites
High priority sites:
Comments: There is a difficulty finding sites that provide bare ground for germination that is undisturbed/ungrazed for development
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: Develop landscape-scale restoration project that extends over large proportion of the Brecks
Action targets: 6. Recovery solutions trialled
Action type: Landscape/catchment/marine management
Duration: >10 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 50 sites
High priority sites:
Comments:
Key Action 3
Proposed Action: Artenisia campestris has an extinct associated obligate parasite Orobanche artemisiae-campestris ss. The third action could be to densely plant Artemisia campestris across the former location of Orobanche artemisiae-campestris ss (Barnham Cross Common) to attempt resurrecting Orobanche artemisiae-campestris ss from the seedbank. This may have benefits for Aretemisia campestris too via saturating the receptor location with propagules and unknown host-parasite relationships
Action targets: 6. Recovery solutions trialled
Action type: Scientific research
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: 1 site
High priority sites: Barnham Cross Common SSSI
Comments:
Acknowledgment:
Data used on this website are adapted from Threatened species recovery actions 2025 baseline (JP065): Technical report and spreadsheet user guide (Natural England, 2025). Available here.