Yarrow

Where it grows

Yarrow is one of the most cosmopolitan flowering plants, native across Eurasia and naturalised throughout North and South America, Australia, and New Zealand. It occupies dry meadows, road verges, sandy lawns, and lightly grazed pasture from sea level to alpine zones.

How to recognise it

A clumping perennial thirty to ninety centimetres tall with finely dissected, almost ferny aromatic leaves — hence millefolium, “thousand leaves.” Each upright stem ends in a flat-topped corymb of dozens of tiny composite heads, each only half a centimetre across, the rays usually white and the disc creamy. Modern cultivars come in vivid coppers and reds.

Garden & cultural uses

Achillea is named for Achilles, who according to legend was taught its wound-staunching properties by the centaur Chiron and used yarrow on injured Greek soldiers at Troy. The leaves contain achilleine and tannins that promote blood clotting, supporting the folk reputation. In the modern garden, yarrow is the backbone of drought-tolerant pollinator plantings.

In divination

In ancient China, dried yarrow stalks were the original tool for casting the I Ching hexagrams, before coins took over the role.