Yarrow

Asteraceae (Compositae)

LIFE FORM: Perennial

NATIVITY: Europe

VEGETATIVE CHARACTERISTICS:

Plant grows to about 2 feet tall; lanceolate leaves are finely dissected; pungent and pale green.

FLOWERS:

White or red flowers in flat-topped clusters; blooms June-September.

FRUIT/DISPERSAL AGENTS:

Spread by seeds and underground rhizomes.

ECOLOGICAL PREFERENCE:

Minimally maintained public parks and open space;vacant lots and rubble dump sites; abandoned grasslands (meadows); unmowed highway banks and median strips with frequent salt applications.

ENVIRONMENTAL FUNCTION:

Salt tolerance along roadways; drought tolerance on compacted soils; erosion control on slopes.

CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE:

Cultivated as ornamental and used in European folk medicine for a variety of purposes; Greek mythology claims that Achilles learned the medicinal values of yarrow from the centaur Charon and that he used the plant to heal his soldiers' wounds. Included by Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides in his five volume herbal, De Materia Medica, which was written in the first century AD and remained in active use into the 1600s. Used as forage for domestic animals.