4 ste 
COMPOSITE FAMILY COMPOSITAE 
COMMON YARROW. MILFOIL 
Achillea Millefolium L. 
Bruise or crush a leaf of this plant and smell it. The pleasant 
odor is very characteristic and capable of identifying the plant. 
The taste of it is bitter, and though cattle avoid the Common 
Yarrow when green, they 
D aA {9 may eat it in dry fodder 
oF Y- Se CN, ‘ ; 
ENO Re Gat and so spoil the milk. 
HENRI) Whether another of its 
ator: 6) \ BRO names, Nosebleed Weed, 
} 1% \ is a true indicator or not, 
Y, 
the plant is still sold for 
medicinal purposes. 
The Milfoil is common 
in dry soil in open places 
AS throughout eastern North 
VOX America. By means of 
7 horizontal rootstocks it is 
a hardy perennial weed, 
especially in pastures. 
The nearly smooth 
flowering stem grows 1-2 
feet high. The basal leaves 
| and those on the numer- 
\ ous short flowerless shoots 
are mostly petioled and 
sometimes Io inches long, 
whereas those on the 
flowering stem are smaller 
, and sessile. All are finely 
\ c divided into many narrow 
segments. 
The heads, about one-quarter inch broad and blooming from 
June to November, are numerous in a nearly flat-topped in- 
florescence. The involucre is composed of small oblong bracts 
which are somewhat hairy. The 4-10 ray flowers are usually 
white but occasionally pink or purple. The disk flowers are yellow, 
their tubular corollas 5-lobed. Both kinds of flowers produce the 
oblong and only slightly flattened akenes having no pappus. 
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