Common yarrow (Achillea millefolium)

Common Names: bloodwort, carpenter's weed, hierba de las cortaduras, milfoil, plumajillo

Description: Yarrow has many uses throughout history including dye for wool, agriculture, food, and traditional medicine.

Habit: Aromatic, erect, hardy perennial that can reach a height of 3 feet.

Leaves: Alternate, narrow, finely divided, feathery, fern-like, up to 6 in. long and 1 in. across, small towards the top, sometimes covered in fine hairs.

Stems: Flowering stems reach heights of 2-3 feet tall, sometimes covered in fine hairs.

Flowers: White in color, long lasting, 1/4 in. across, 4-6 petals, borne in dense, flattened, compound clusters that are 2-4 inches across.

Fruit and seeds: Small achenes, 0.17 mg, oval-elliptic, brown in color, 1-2 mm long.

Habitat: Native to Eurasia. Can be found in disturbed sites, grasslands, roadsides, lawns and open forests.

Reproduction: By seed and vegetatively by rhizome fragments.

Similar species: Sneezeweed (Achillea ptarmica)

Monitoring and rapid response: Hand pull, making sure to remove all root fragments to prevent resprouting.

Credits: The information provided in this factsheet was gathered from Minnesota Wildflowers and the Missouri Botanical Garden.

Individual species images that appear with a number in a black box are courtesy of the Bugwood.org network (http://www.invasive.org).Individual photo author credits may not be included due to the small display size of the images and subsequent difficulty of reading the provided text. All other images appear courtesy of Google (http://images.google.com).

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