Grandmother Speaks... Yarrow - Achillea millefolium by Ellen Evert Hopman

Yarrow - Achillea millefolium
by Ellen Evert Hopman

Yarrow or Achillea millefolium was known as Medicine Plant to theearly European settlers of New England. It's foot tall stalks with their featheryleaves andwhite flower clusterscan be seen in meadows and fields and along roadsides from June to November.The name "Achillea" was bestowed on this plant for its ability to stop hemorrhage, in honor of the ancient Greek warrior Achilles who gave it to his soldiers to stop bleeding when they were wounded. Chinese herbalists and sages were so impressed by Yarrow that they used it's stalks as a divinatory tool in conjunction with the I Ching or Book of Changes.

Young Yarrow leaves are picked and eaten in the spring as a general blood tonic. Add them to a salad of baby dandelion leaves, violet leaves and flowers, and wild onions.

The signatures of this plant are its white flowers hinting at bone tissue and the leaves which have evolved deep cuts back to the rib and veins, telling herbalists that the herb is useful for deep cuts to the bone where bleeding is profuse. It also stimmulates the
bone marrow and increases white blood cell production. Yarrow helps conditions where there is coagulation and stagnation of blood such as in blood blisters, bruises and menstrual problems. Yarrow is a remedy for fevers of sudden onset where the face and tongue are red.

Yarrow is the great classic remedy for stomch flu and any condition where the intestines are infected such as diverticulitis. Native American herbalists made extensive use of Yarrow, applying the chewed leaves as a poultice to burns and taking the leaf tea for hemorrhage, bloody diarrhea, bowel complaints and as a general remedy for fevers to bring on restful sleep. The leaf and flower tea was taken for chest pain and heart problems and for coughs, colds, nausea and for kidney and liver ailments.

Yarrow leaves were smoked both in ceremonies and to relieve lung congestion. The tea of the leaf was used to bathe babies who were having convulsions, as a rub for joint pain, as a wash for unconscious persons and as a wash for pimples, chapped hands, rashes and insect bites.

Yarrow leaves were burned to revive comatose patients and to repel evil spirits. The tea was poured onto hot rocks in the sweat lodge for sickness and rheumatism. These are just a few of the uses of this remarkable plant.

To make Yarrow tea take fresh or dried flowers and leaves and steep them for about 20 minutes in a non aluminum pot with a tight fitting lid. Use the usual proportions of 2 teaspoons of herb per cup of freshly boiled water. Up to cup a day is then taken at intervals, between meals.

 

Ellen Evert Hopman - Master Herbalist, Druid Priestess, Author
Web: http://www.elleneverthopman.com/
Snailmail: PO Box 219, Amherst, MA 01004 U.S.A.

copyright © Ellen Evert Hopman

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Introduction by Jean Houston.
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Other articles by Robin Rose Bennett
An Herbalists Notebook part 1
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