Holding him by the heel, the Greek goddess, Thetis, bathed her little boy, Achilles, in water fortified by a local plant that would make him invincible. Shame about the heel, of course, but eventually his name was attached by botanists to the plant – achillea millefolium. We call it Yarrow and it grows across the northern hemisphere from the USA to China. But you don’t have to go to China to find it – there’s plenty of it on Cowbar. It’s a perennial and you can recognize it by its fern-like leaves and clusters of tiny white or pink flowers
It’s a resilient plant, capable of flourishing even in poor soil. It has a long history of use in medicine. The Ancient Greeks and Romans, native Americans and Chinese physicians are all recorded as having used it to treat a wide variety of external and internal ailments. Modern science has backed up many of these practices.
It doesn’t just benefit people – it enhances the earth in which it grows which benefits other plants and it attracts plenty of pollinators. So, if it turns up in your garden, welcome it!