Our Friend Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)- on the Summer Lawns
Our Friend Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)- On Summer Lawns
Still on our lawns, roadsides, fields, and hedgerows, Yarrow can be an important cold, flu, and lung herb. Achillea millefolium, such a wonderful Latin name ‘the foliage of a million leaflets!’ It’s beautiful flowers and leaves are good for so many situations and it grows wild all over the UK and Europe.
A simple home-brewed tea is the easiest way to use it. Just collect a tablespoon of fresh leaves and pour a mug of boiling water over it. Leave for 10 minutes and drink. It is bitter! But this is part of its medicinal ‘taste’. You can always sweeten with liquorices or maple syrup or add a peppermint tea bag.
It helps lower blood pressure so can be used alone or put with Olive Leaf and other blood pressure lowering plants. It is anti-allergenic, so hay fever sufferers or those with any kinds of food and other allergies would benefit from using this next Spring. It is of course a favourite and time old fever, cold, and flu remedy as I said, and I know some of you already use it for this and often classically use with peppermint and Elderflower. It increases sweating, reduces fever, and is anti-inflammatory. (Whilst its bitter properties help digestive recovery afterwards). Achilles, of Greek history made it famous for war wounds and in particular on his ‘Achilles heel’ but it is a brilliant all-round wound herb as an ointment or soaked in an oil base. For women it’s a godsend to help regulate the menstrual cycle and especially for heavy periods and any pain.
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