The Yarrow or Millfoil is a very common plant all over Britain. It grows
on waste ground and in the corners of fields, and it is in flower in
late summer and autumn.
It is one of the daisy plants, and you must look at it carefully. The
flowers grow in clusters, three or four together, at the end of stalks
which branch from the main stem. They are white, and look like tiny
daisies. You must pick one of them gently to pieces, and then you will
find that each daisy is really made up of a great many small flowers
crowded together on a disc. The outer flowers consist of a white tube,
with one long white strap, and there is a row of these white straps
standing out like a frill round the yellow centre. Inside this white
border there are a great many tiny yellow tube flowers, with five points
at the mouth of each tube, but these you will not see without a
microscope.
Outside this mass of flowers grows a ring of small green leaves, which
are closely packed together and are very woolly.
The stem of the Yarrow is stiff and smooth and is slightly tinged with
red. The leaves are long and narrow, and each leaf is made up of many
tiny pairs of leaflets placed opposite each other on the stem. Each
leaflet is cut up into many divisions, so that the whole leaf is light
and feathery like a small fern.