Yarrow
Achillea millefolium
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Feathery leaves and flat white flower heads — a battlefield wound herb since antiquity.
A tough perennial with finely divided, feathery, dark green leaves — the millefolium, thousand-leaf, of its name — and flat-topped heads of small white or pale pink daisy flowers. Yarrow is abundant on verges, lawns, pasture, waste ground and dunes across the Dumfries area, tolerating drought, mowing and poor soil.
Behaviour
The genus is named for Achilles, who is said to have used it to staunch his soldiers' wounds, and it has a long history as a wound herb. The flat open flower heads are accessible to short-tongued insects — hoverflies, small bees, beetles and wasps — which makes yarrow valuable to a very different set of pollinators from deep-tubed flowers. It spreads by creeping rhizome.
When to see it
Quick facts
- Family
- Daisies (Asteraceae)
- Height
- 20–60 cm
- Status
- Native; abundant in grassland and verges
Photo by SAplants, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons