Wormwood in Colorado

‘Green Fairy’ weed taking a whack at Colorado plants

'EAGLE COUNTY - As the senior landscape engineer for the town of Vail, Gregg Barrie knows a weed when he sees one, and these days he's seeing a lot of weeds.

"We have our hands full with noxious weeds so far this year," said Barrie.

However, there's one weed many have seen without realizing what it really is. It is a non-native weed from the Middle East called absinthe or wormwood.

"It looks very much like our native sage, so for years we walked past it thinking it was just a plant that was supposed to be here," said Barrie.

Wormwood, which is believed to have been brought to Colorado in the late 1800s, is also called the Green Fairy, because some say it has psychoactive properties.

"They say it can be a hallucinogen," said Barrie.

The hallucinogenic aspects of absinthe, which can be taken as a tea, has never been proven, but you can find a version of it at most liquor stores.

Mickey Werner is the head clerk at Alpine Wine and Spirits in Vail and says you can find the absinthe flavor in many types of liquor.

"The base component is really an absinthe or black liquorish flavor," said Werner.

The drink is even rumored to have been the key reason for Van Gogh's bizarre ear act.

"Rumor has it that's how Van Gogh cut his ear off. It's definitely an artist drink because of the hallucinogenic effects it had," said Werner.

Of course these days when you drink absinthe liquor all you are really getting is the flavor, because the real chemical in absinthe, thujone, is banned in the U.S. because in high doses it is dangerous.

"Literally, it eats away at your neural transmitters in your brain. Drink enough of it you'll die eventually," said Werner.

Barrie says one thing absinthe is already killing is other plants native to Colorado.

"They tend to crowd out some of the native plants and we want to try and prevent that if we can," said Barrie.

So now realizing that absinthe is a non-native weed and not sage as many thought, it's now on Barrie's hit list for removing plants that don't belong in this neck of the woods.

"It's really amazing how much they have started to impact our natural areas," Barrie said.'