YARROW. Achillea millefolium. N.O. Compositae.
Synonym : Milfoil, Nosebleed, Thousand-leaf.
Habitat : A wayside herb, also often seen in the pasture and meadow lands of Europe and the United States.
Features : Yarrow has a rough, angular stem, and grows from twelve to eighteen inches in height. The alternate leaves are pinnatifid, clasp the stem at the base, are slightly wooly, and are cut in very fine segments.
The flowers are small, white (occasionally pink or purplish), daisy-like, and bloom in dense, flattened terminal corymbs, appearing at their best in July.
Part used : Herb.
Action : Diaphoretic, stimulant and tonic.
The herb is extremely useful in colds and acute catarrhs of the respiratory tract generally. As it has the effect of opening the pores, thus permitting free perspiration, Yarrow is taken at the commencement of influenza and in other feverish conditions. An infusion of 1 ounce to 1 pint of boiling water is drunk warm in wineglass doses. As a very popular remedy for influenza colds it is usually combined with Elder flowers and Peppermint in equal quantities. It was sometimes prescribed by the old herbalists as a tonic in nervous debility, but there are many better herbal medicines for this condition.
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