MILFOIL 



The fruit is smooth and shiningr 



53 

 The flowerheads 



dirty-yellow tube, 

 are often pink. 



The height varies from i to 2 ft. Flowers are to be found between 

 June and September. Milfoil is a deciduous, herbaceous, perennial, 

 propagated by division. 



The head is made up of several small florets, which make it 

 attractive, and lead to cross-pollination. The disk florets have a tube 

 2 mm. long, with a throat i mm. long, and wide, having five triangular 



MILFOIL (Achillea Millefolium, L.) 



teeth. At the base of the style a ringlike ridge secretes honey. The 

 honey rises in the tube and short-lipped insects can reach it. The 

 lobes of the style are pressed together when the flowerhead opens, and 

 project with spreading hairs into the lower part of the cylinder. When 

 the style lengthens pollen is pressed out of the upper end of the tube, 

 the lobes of the style project and spread, turning the stigmatic ends 

 upwards, bending the hairy tips back so that some pollen sticks to 

 them, and so is not left for insects. When the pollen is pushed up 

 the tube projects beyond the corolla. When the stigmas project the 

 tube lies lower in the corolla, depressed by the contracting filaments. 

 In this way the stigmas may lie above the corolla where the pollen 

 was. As the abdomen of an insect sweeps over a flower it touches 

 many florets, and also causes cross-pollination. 



