Yarrow

[Lois]

 

YARROW (Achillea millefolium)

~ Excerpt pp.162-168 - A City Herbal by Maida Silverman

Folknames: Yarroway, Milfoil, Thousandweed, Thousandleaf, Soldier's Woundwort, Knight's Milfoil, Carpenter's Weed, Bloodwort, Staunchweed, Sanguinary, Nosebleed, Devil's Nettle, Devil's Plaything.

Location: Roadsides, grassy strips, waste places, vacant lots.

Botanical Description: Yarrow is a plant whose habits are rather variable. One or several stiff stems may grow from the root. They are usually between one and two feet tall but are occasionally shorter, and may be smooth-or rough-textured. The leaves are larger at the base and progressively smaller toward the top of the stalks and are arranged alternately. They clasp the stems at their bases and are delicate and finely divided, resembling feathers more than leaves

Yarrow blooms from June to September in the eastern part of the United States. Flowers are in flat-topped clusters at the ends of the stems. The individual "flowers" are very small, with fine white "petals" and a yellowish center. This "flower" is actually two separate, distinct male and female flowers. The female flowers are in the yellow center surrounded by five white "petals," each one of which is a male flower.

The entire plant has a strong, pungent odor and a bitter taste. If Yarrow is eaten by cows (as occasionally happens) it gives a very unpleasant taste to milk products and makes them inedible.

 

Yarrow is a perennial, reproducing by seeds and from underground runners. It is native and widespread in the United States and grows throughout Europe and Asia as well.

There is a variety of Yarrow that has beautiful purple flowers. It is grown in gardens and is called Ornamental Yarrow. This color is sometimes (but rarely) found in wild plants as well.

more here with picture.

http://www.ashtreepublishing.com/Book_City_Herbal_Yarrow.htm

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Theyd added:

I have lots of it growing wild in my yard.

 

my sil used it a lot for colds and flu's i have never had a need for it as of yet. but every year i cut some and put it up for the winter just in case. or if sil runs out.

 

here's some safety factor which i have found in looking up yarrow sorry i can't tell you where i got the info from but it is in my notes...

high doses of yarrow may turn the urine dark brown.

 

if allergic to ragweed you might develop a rash

not sugessted to be used by pregnant women or nursing women

[westbrook]

one of the best blood stoppers is Yarrow! yarrow can be a weed so find a place way back in a corner. It can take a mowing once a year but the feathery leaves are pretty and the flower head is used in dried flower arrangements.

 

Yarrow besides its amazing blood stopping powers can be made into a tea and used when asprin is not available.

 

It wasn't anything to see my kids running around the yard with a yarrow leaf stuck up their nose for a minute or two to stop a nose bleed.

[Mt_Rider]

Well, FINALLY there is something useful growing profusely up here where snowballs are a cash crop. Yarrow is so thick that in the fall it looks like more snowdrifts.

 

Do ya just pick the whole plant and hang it upside down? I did that last fall. Asprin substitute, huh? Might be easier on my stomach than all the ibuprofen I've been taking. Hafta look into that.

 

 

thanks!

MtRider

[Lois]

more on yarrow

Yarrow has an ancient and honorable reputation as a wound herb, particularly efficacious for stopping the flow of blood. This belief was alluded to in the folknames, most of which refer to this property. The specific name, millefolium, refers to the minutely divided leaves and is reflected in names such as Milfoil and Thousandleaf, a literal translation of the Latin world millefolium.

 

Yarrow was said to be "excellent to stop inward bleeding." Yarrow was dried, powdered, and mixed with Plantain or comfrey water (both were famous wound herbs) or used by itself fresh, as a poultice for wounds that would not stop bleeding. These preparations were said to immediately stop the flow of blood. Dried and powdered Yarrow leaves, if dropped into the nostrils, stopped nosebleed. A decoction of Yarrow in white wine was drunk as a remedy for too copious menstruation. For the same purpose, large amounts of the fresh plants were boiled in water, and the patient sat over the beneficial steam to absorb it.

 

Oddly enough, this stauncher of blood could actually cause nosebleed if a fresh leaf was inserted in the nostril and twisted. This was sometimes purposely done, it being believed at one time that nosebleeds cured headaches.

 

Yarrow was a favorite wound herb of the Anglo-Saxons. They also employed it to heal burns and the bites of poisonous snakes and insects. The fresh leaves were chewed to relieve toothache.

 

Dr. William Coles, a seventeenth-century physician, prescribed the flowers and juice of the plant taken in goat's milk or the distilled water of the whole plant as being "good for loose bowels, even more so if a little powdered coral, amber or ivory is added." (This last recommendation was medically worthless but highly popular in Cole's time, particularly among the rich-the only ones who could afford it. Everyone else had to be content with the unadorned herbs. Actually, they were probably better off. Powdered gems certainly did no good, and in some instances may have done some harm.)

 

Coles mentions that ointments containing Yarrow were used to heal ulcers, wounds, and running sores "by signature-the many incisions upon the leaves resembling those wounds, or if your fancy will have it, more like unto hair: it stops the shedding if the head is bathed with a decoction thereof." He describes another more unusual use for Yarrow: the juice was injected by syringe to cure a distressing ailment known as the "the excoriation of the yard {penis} caused by pollution or extreme flowing of seed, and any inflammation or swelling caused thereby, as has been proved by some single or unmarried persons, who have been very much oppressed on this account."

 

In nineteenth-century Britain, one physician observed that Yarrow "though generally neglected" was a fine medicine for excessive menstrual bleeding, bloody fluxes generally, and bleeding piles. It was an excellent diuretic and healed ulcers of the kidneys and urethra. The best part was the young shoots. The doctor remarked that foreign physicians still esteemed Yarrow for treating hemorrhage.

 

In America, Yarrow was well known as a medicinal plant to native American peoples. The Delaware and related Algonquin tribes prepared a tea from Yarrow which they used fore treating liver and kidney disorders. The Lenape pounded Yarrow roots with a stone and boiled them with water to make a remedy for excessive menstrual flow. Yarrow was extensively employed by a number of other tribes. The Ute name for it meant "wound medicine," and it was used by them as such, and the Piute drank Yarrow tea to cure a variety of stomach disorders.

 

The Pennsylvania Dutch knew Yarrow as Schoof Ribba. They prepared a "sweating tonic" from the whole plant to reduce fever, and a tea made with the leaves was supposed to have a beneficial effect on the liver and gall bladder. Horses were fed Yarrow to cure them of intestinal worms

 

The nineteenth-century physician-botanist Dr. C. S. Rafinewque recommended an infusion or extract of the whole herb for menstrual problems and dysentery. Rafinesque believed that American Yarrow was stronger in its action than the European variety, and he mentioned that the American plants were exported for medicinal use abroad.

 

Yarrow tea was a popular remedy for influenza. It was thought to induce copious sweating, thus reducing the dangerously high fever of this disease. Yarrow tea was considered a good general remedy for severe chest colds as well. The dose was one ounce of the dried herb to one pint of boiling water. It was strained and drunk warm and sweetened with honey or sugar. Sometimes a dash of cayenne pepper was added.

 

Yarrow is still official in Central Europe as a tonic and stimulant.

 

The British Herbal Pharmacopoeia (1971 edition) lists Yarrow as an "antipyretic, diaphoretic…astringent and diuretic." Modern herbal doctors employ it to treat fevers, amenorrhea, and diarrhea.

[westbrook]

I mixed yarrow with chamomile and a wee bit of lemon verbena (lemon grass if you have it.. lemon balm reminds me of lemon pledge polishing spray and don't care too much for it), honey and it makes a nice soothing tea for children.

 

yes, pick, hang to dry. read what Lois posted on yarrow.

 

yarrow thrown in a compost pile helps to cook faster

 

husband nicks his chin while shaving? put a little yarrow leaf on it.

 

DO NOT put yarrow on a scrape!!!!! no, no, no, !!!! it stops if from weaping and scabbing over! oh goodness.. I did that once and was so sorry! but on a cut, bloody nose, internal bleeding (gunshot) oh great stuff! oh a goat horn knocked off it works great. (cob webs work too in a pinch)

 

yarrow doesn't taste bad in a tea.

[Mt_Rider]

what part of the plant are you using for the tea, Westie?

 

 

 

MtR

[westbrook]

the leaves are used for tea.

[zzelle]

thanks westie

[zinger]

I planted it in the yard on purpose 'cuz I like how it looks. Nice to know I was doing something smart, too.

[-6]

Westie, have any seeds?? wc

[Mt_Rider]

We've got it all over up here in the Rockies. But...hmmm, seeds? What *does* propagate yarrow? Maybe I'll take a closer look and get back to y'all. Can't say as I've noticed seeds.

 

 

MtRider [ who usually does notice such things... ]