The American plant is said to be more valuable than the European species. Achillea was known to the ancients. Pliny states that the generic term, Achillea, was named from Achilles, a physician, who was one of the first to use a species of this plant as a vulnerary. Yarrow is sold by the native herbalists of India, like rosemary, where it is used as a bitter and in medicated vapor baths for fevers (Dymock). The Italians employed it in intermittent fevers, and in the Scottish highlands it is made into ointment for wounds. According to Linnaeus the Dalecarlians used it as a substitute for hops in the making of ale, believing it to impart to it intoxicating qualities. Both Stahl and Haller used this plant extensively.
Lucas Land
Yarrow or Milfoil
Achillea millefolium
From Nearctica
Alien: Native of Europe.
Identification: Flowers white (rarely pink), small, with 5 broad ray florets and a small, compact disk, much resembling a 5 petaled flowered. Flowers arranged in flat-topped clusters much resembling umbels. Leaves highly dissected, fernlike. Foliage aromatic when crushed. Plant 1 to 3 feet in height.
Distribution: Throughout North America.
Habitat: A weed found along roadsides, in fields, and other disturbed sites.
Flowering period: June to August.
