Yarrow
Achillea millefolium
The soldier's herb — where blood flows, yarrow follows.
Overview
Yarrow is one of the oldest documented medicinal plants on earth. Neanderthal burials at Shanidar Cave in Iraq contained yarrow pollen among the grave goods — or so the interpretation runs, contested but persistent. What is not contested is that yarrow stops bleeding. Its common names accumulate around this fact: woundwort, staunchweed, soldier's woundwort, knight's milfoil, nosebleed plant. It has been pressed into wounds on battlefields across thousands of years of recorded history, and the chemistry supports the tradition.
Botanical Notes
A creeping perennial reaching 20–80cm, spreading by underground rhizome to form colonies. Leaves are finely divided into hundreds of small segments — millefolium, a thousand leaves — giving a feathery, aromatic texture. Flat-topped clusters of small white or pale pink flower heads from June to October. Common throughout Europe, Asia, and North America in grassland, meadows, roadsides, and lawns. Extraordinarily adaptable.
Lore & History
The genus name honours Achilles, who is said in the Iliad to have learned the herb's wound-staunching properties from the centaur Chiron and used it on the battlefield of Troy. Yarrow stalks — fifty of them, shuffled and divided — are the traditional tool for casting the I Ching, their forked flexibility making them suited to the operation of chance and interpretation. In British folk tradition it was tucked into bridal bouquets to ensure seven years of love, and worn as an amulet against those you feared.
Warnings
Generally considered safe. May cause contact dermatitis in sensitive individuals — patch test before extended skin contact. Contains small amounts of thujone and achilleine; avoid high-dose internal use in pregnancy as a precaution. Rare cross-reactions in those allergic to Asteraceae. One of the most benign entries in this archive.