The foliage resembles cultivated chrysanthemum. In North Carolina, seeds are moved by seasonal floods, but in the northern United States, viable seeds are not produced and plants are spread exclusively by rhizomes. Once introduced to a field or landscape, mugwort is difficult to control, spread by cultivation, and encraoches to adjacent areas via rhizomes. Clumping rhizomatous perennial up to 6 feet tall.
Leaves strongly resemble and smell like chrysanthemum leaves.
Juvenile mugwort can be confused with ragweed, which has more finely cut leaves. Seedlings are rarely encountered in the Northeastern U.S. because few viable seeds are produced. In the Southeastern U.S. seedlings are more common. Flowers are produced in clusters at the upper portion of the stems in late summer. Individual flowers are greenish-yellow disk flowers.