Achillea (Yarrow)

Common Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) is one of the most widely distributed native plants in North America. Found on every continent except Antarctica, circumboreal, and genuinely native to the Pacific Northwest (though note that many horticultural cultivars are European-derived). Flat-topped creamy-white umbels of tiny densely-packed flowers sit atop feathery gray-green finely divided foliage, 18 to 30 inches tall.

Yarrow is a pollinator workhorse. Bees, native bees, bumblebees, small butterflies, hoverflies, and a wide range of beneficial predatory insects (parasitic wasps and tachinid flies that prey on garden pests) all work the flower heads. Documented BAMONA larval host for Painted Lady butterfly (Vanessa cardui) and several other nymphalid and noctuid species.

Yarrow has the single richest Indigenous-use record of almost any North American plant: NAEB documents 203 separate uses across more than 60 Nations. Abnaki, Algonquin, Bella Coola, Blackfoot, Carrier (Southern), Chehalis, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Chippewa, Clallam, Cowlitz, Cree (Woodlands), Creek, Crow, Delaware, Flathead, Gitksan, Gosiute, Iroquois, Kwakiutl, Lummi, Makah, Menominee, Micmac, Mohegan, Nitinaht, Ojibwa, Okanagan-Colville, Paiute, Potawatomi, Quileute, Quinault, Salish, Shuswap, Skagit, Snohomish, Squaxin, Thompson, Yuki, Yurok, and many more. Uses include analgesic, cold remedy, wound-healing poultice, fever-reducer, gastrointestinal aid, dermatological aid, pediatric aid, ceremonial incense and fragrance, and burn dressing. Yarrow is one of the foundational medicinal plants of PNW Indigenous healing practice.

Coastal-friendly. Native on Oregon coastal bluffs and meadows. Handles salt spray, wind, and sandy soil.

Pairs with Eriophyllum lanatum, Erysimum capitatum, Armeria maritima, Camassia leichtlinii, and Fragaria chiloensis for a classic PNW coastal-meadow pollinator tapestry.