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Staunch Yarrow: the Military Herb

© Audrey Stallsmith

(The nermit gathers)
The yarrow, wherewithall he stops the wound-made gore.--Drayton

War is almost as old as history, and yarrow is almost as old as war. For centuries, prudent soldiers carried the herb to staunch battle wounds. Officially known as achillea millefolium, it was named for Achilles. One of the military heroes in Homer's Iliad, Achilles learned the plant's secrets from a centaur named Chiron.

"Millefolium," on the other hand, means "thousand-leaf," a reference to the ferny foliage. Mattioli describes those leaves as being "like the wispy feathers of young birds." The flowers, writes Mrs. Grieve, are "white or pale lilac, being like minute daisies, in flattened. . .heads."

As a result of its popularity with fighting men, the herb was also called herba militaris, knight's milfoil, bloodwort, and staunchgrass--and stands for "war" in the Language of Flowers. The common name, yarrow, derives either from the Anglo-Saxon "gearwe" or the Dutch "yerw."

Although most famous for its ability to stop bleeding--it speeds clotting--yarrow was occasionally twirled inside the nostrils to start bleeding as well. A nosebleed was once considered a good cure for headache, or a promise of success in love. A hopeful old chant runs "Yarroway, yarroway, bear a white blow (flower),/ If my love love me, my nose will bleed now."

In an old Scottish raum (rhyme?), a poet conjures up his beloved's image with yarrow:
I rose early in the morning yesterday
I plucked yarrow for the horoscope of thy tale
In the hope that I might see the desire of my heart
Ochone there was seen her back towards me.

The herb's supposed "insight" made it popular with soothsayers and witches as well as lovers--so that it was also known as devil's nettle. In ancient China, 50 dried and stripped yarrow stalks were used as an oracle: "the medium by which deities were consulted" (Webster). A person holding the herb over his/her eyes was supposed to be able to see into the Other World.

Witches believed that sprigs of yarrow, known as Cappeen d' Yarray, in their caps would allow them to fly. And an old incantation ran, "There's a crying at my window and a hand upon my door,/ And a stir among the yarrow that's fading on the floor. . ." On the principle, perhaps, that it takes fire to fight fire, the common people believed that yarrow would also protect them from evil.

Although its powers are not supernatural, the herb does have an amazing ability to cleanse and heal wounds. In earlier times, it was often "stamped with swine's grease" to make ointment. John Heinerman tells a more modern story of a teen on a hiking trip who accidentally stabbed himself in the leg with a piece of sharp firewood. Since the camping party did not have adequate first-aid equipment with them, they crushed yarrow and taped it over the wound. When the boy saw a doctor a couple days later, the medic could find no trace of the original gash.

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