Achillea ochroleuca

Tilcayo Cats original · Plants · Sources and editorial assessment · Originals retention rule

Achillea ochroleuca Ehrh. is a pale-flowered yarrow in the daisy family, Asteraceae. Its native range extends from Hungary through parts of the northern Balkans to Ukraine. Kew accepts the species, named by Friedrich Ehrhart in 1792, and recognises two varieties: ochroleuca and parviflora.

Appearance and habitat

The Hungarian flora account published by the TERRA Foundation describes a grey, downy plant about twenty to eighty centimetres tall. Its divided leaves and pale yellowish-white outer flowers distinguish its general appearance. The foliage releases an aromatic scent when rubbed.

In Hungary, the account records it in sandy grassland, meadows, pastures and steppe slopes, flowering from May to July. Bulgaria's 2014 conservation plan likewise associates it with open, dry sandy grassland. The plan records reproduction both by seed and by the separation of pieces of its underground rhizomes.

Conservation in Bulgaria

The Bulgarian plan, covering 2014–2023, records a national assessment of Critically Endangered. This is a Bulgarian assessment reported in a historical plan, not a worldwide conservation category or a new population survey.

The plan describes damage observed during 2010–2013 from sand extraction, tracks and intensive grazing. It also identifies the spread of tree-of-heaven and black locust as threats to the open vegetation, alongside potential cultivation and building development. Proposed measures included habitat protection, seed banking and repeated population monitoring.

These records show why the condition of the sandy habitat matters as well as the survival of individual plants. They do not establish whether all of the proposed measures were subsequently implemented.