Wilderness Survival: Use Yarrow for Food and Medicine

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) is a plant that was originally from Europe, but brought to North America by European settlers. The fern-like leaves can be found all year in the lower half of the US, but the biggest leaves will be found in summer. The plant blooms at the height of summer, with a stalk that is about two feet tall and bearing a flat topped cluster of white flowers. This flower cluster resembles Queen Anne's lace, but yarrow has a triangular flower cluster, while Queen Anne's lace is a round cluster of tiny white flowers.

Learn The Benefits Of Yarrow

The yarrow plant also has a long history as a powerful healing herb used topically for wounds, cuts and abrasions. The genus name Achillea is derived from Greek character Achilles, who reportedly carried yarrow with his army to treat battle wounds. This medicinal action is also reflected in some of the common names, such as staunchweed and soldier's woundwort. These are just a few things it can do.

• Styptic yarrow can stop bleeding quickly, due to its astringent and vasoconstricting compounds.
• Anti-bacterial the crushed leaves, fresh or dried, contain compounds that have an anti-bacterial action. This leaf material can be applied directly to wounds, or soaked in water to make a tea which can be employed as a hot compress.
• Diaphoretic a strong yarrow tea can increase perspiration, helping to break a fever.
• Anesthetic crushed fresh leaves can have a numbing action (but not for everybody). If it does work for you, this desensitizes the nerves.

Get The Right Plant

When crushed, the leaves and flowers will have a pleasant, spicy smell. Most folks agree that it smells like rosemary, oregano and other cooking herbs blended together. The leaves should also be hairy or fuzzy, especially on the stems. If the leaves are smooth stemmed, do not even touch them. If you've already crushed them to smell the plant's odor and you smell something bad go wash your hands immediately. Fool's parsley (Aethusa cynapium) and poison hemlock (Conium maculatum) leaves are very poisonous or fatal if eaten. Fool's parsley and poison hemlock leaves can resemble yarrow leaves when young, but they often have a bad odor, reminiscent of chemicals or cleaners. If you have crushed a leaf to smell it, and your fingers go numb wash immediately and do not eat that plant or apply it to wounds.

These tips, and many more survival tips, are in MacWelch's books: Prepare For Anything, The Hunting and Gathering Survival Manual, How To Survive Anything, and available now, Tim's latest release, The Ultimate Winter Survival Handbook.