← Native & Prairie Plants
🌾 Native & Prairie Plants
Yarrow
(Achillea millefolium)
The wound herb of the prairie ditch
🔍 How to identify it
Feathery, finely-dissected fern-like leaves ('thousand-leaf') up the stem; flat-topped clusters of tiny white (sometimes pink) flowers; distinctive sharp herbal scent. Stems slightly hairy.
👀 Look-alikes
The foliage resembles some Apiaceae — but yarrow's flat flower cluster is made of tiny DAISY florets, and the smell is unmistakable. Learn it well before wild-harvesting.
🤝 Companion planting
Plant near:
most vegetables (draws beneficials)aromatic herbs
| Family | Asteraceae (daisy family) |
| Hardiness zone | 2-9 (tough native) |
| Sun | Full sun |
| Water | Very drought-tolerant |
| Soil | Lean, well-drained; thrives in poor soil |
| Spacing | 30-45 cm; spreads by rhizome |
| Sowing / starting | Surface-sow (needs light) or divide; aggressive once established |
| Harvest | Cut flowering tops in summer; dry for tea or first-aid poultice |
| Common pests | Practically none; a beneficial-insect nursery and butterfly plant. |
🧺 What it's good for
Traditional wound and fever herb; compost activator; drought-proof pollinator plant.
Plant identification here is educational — never eat, forage, or medicate with a wild plant on the basis of a website alone. Many edible plants have toxic look-alikes. When in doubt, grow from known seed, or confirm with an expert before you harvest.