Yarrow
Achillea millefolium
Also called Milfoil, Nosebleed plant
We do not have a Blackfoot or Cree name for this one yet. Tell us the name and we will add it, with your word on where it comes from.
A feathery-leaved plant with a flat white flower head, found almost everywhere in this territory. Long used on cuts and scrapes. It also has two deadly look-alikes, so read the identification carefully.
Commonly shared knowledge. Learn it, gather it, and follow the protocol.
Take care
- Some people get a rash from handling yarrow in sunlight. Try a small amount on the skin first.
- Not taken internally in pregnancy.
- People allergic to ragweed, daisies or chamomile may react to yarrow.
What it is confused with
Deadly look-alikePoison hemlock Conium maculatum
Poison hemlock has a smooth hairless stem with purple blotches, is hollow between the joints, and grows chest high or taller. Its leaves are divided but glossy and fern-like rather than soft and feathery, and it smells rank and mousy, not sweet. Its flowers sit in umbrella-shaped clusters on branching stalks, not one flat head on one stem.
Deadly look-alikeWater hemlock Cicuta maculata
Water hemlock grows in wet ground, is tall and stout with a purple-streaked hollow stem, and has coarse toothed leaflets with the leaf veins ending in the notches between teeth rather than at the tips. Cut the root and it is chambered with yellow oily sap. It is the most violently poisonous plant on this prairie. If you are in wet ground and unsure, stop.
Harmful look-alikeWild caraway and other carrot-family plants
The whole carrot family carries umbrella-shaped flower clusters on branching stalks. Yarrow does not: its flat head sits on one stem, and its leaves are feathery all the way rather than divided into distinct leaflets.
How to know it
- Leaves
- Very finely divided, soft and feathery, almost fern-like, and hairy. They feel soft rather than crisp when you rub them.
- Smell
- Sharp, sweet and unmistakably aromatic when a leaf is crushed. This is the single most useful test.
- Flowers
- Small white or occasionally pink flowers packed into a flat-topped cluster, sitting on top of a single unbranched stem.
- Stem
- Solid, slightly ridged, greyish-green and hairy. Not hollow, never purple-blotched.
- Height
- Ankle to knee high in most places, taller in good ground.
The country it grows in
- Open prairie
- Coulee slopes
- Aspen parkland
- Roadsides and disturbed ground
- Foothills and shrubland
Landscape types only. We do not publish where a patch is, and we are not going to.
When it is ready
- Leaves May to September
- Flowers June to SeptemberPick heads that are fully open and still white, not browning.
Right now it is July. Something on this plant is in season.
What it is used for
- Skin and wounds
- Breathing and colds
- Teaching with youth
Documented across the plains for cuts, scrapes and nosebleeds, applied to the skin.
Also documented as a tea for colds, though the taste is very bitter.
How it is prepared
- Poultice
Fresh leaves are bruised or chewed and laid on a clean minor scrape, then covered.
For minor scrapes only. Deep wounds, bites, anything dirty, and anything that will not stop bleeding need proper medical care.
- Dried and stored
Bundle and hang to dry, then strip the leaf and flower and keep it in a jar.
- Tea
A small pinch of dried leaf steeped in hot water. It is strong and bitter.
Protocol
Ask the plant first, and offer something before you take anything. Tobacco is what is most often offered here. Say who you are, and say what the medicine is for.
Harvest the mature plants and leave the small ones to grow. Never take the first plant you find, and never take all of them.
Take only what you will actually use. Medicine picked and then left to rot in a bag was taken for nothing.
Leave the ground as you found it. Put back any dirt you dug up, and return any plant material you do not use to the earth.
Do not gather beside roads, highways or trails, where the plants take up whatever has been sprayed or spilled there.
If you are not certain what a plant is, do not pick it and do not put it in your mouth. Ask someone. Being wrong in the field is how people get hurt.
Yarrow is everywhere, which is exactly why it is a good plant to learn first. Learn it well enough that you could pick it out in the dark, because the plants it resembles will kill you.