Achillea wilhelmsii

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

Achillea wilhelmsii is a perennial yarrow in the daisy family, Asteraceae. Its native range extends from the southern and eastern Mediterranean to central Asia and Pakistan. Kew accepts the species under the name published by Karl Koch in 1851.

Appearance

The Flora of Iraq describes a plant about ten to thirty-five centimetres tall. Its narrow stem leaves are divided into small, toothed lobes and may have a woolly covering that becomes less pronounced with age. Leaves continue almost to the flower clusters.

The clusters contain numerous small heads, each with three to five bright-yellow ray flowers around a larger group of tubular disc flowers. Thin-edged bracts surround the base of each head.

Habitat and seasonal growth

The Iraqi flora records the plant on dry low hills and plains, along roadsides and in fields. It is common in the country's steppe region and also occurs in parts of the desert and lower forest regions. Flowering and fruiting are recorded from March to June in that regional account.

Avinoam Danin's account describes plants spreading through underground rhizomes and forming patches in cultivated loess soils, including winter-cereal fields. He also records them in channels through loess plains and in deep soils at the foot of slopes. The above-ground parts die back in summer.

Danin notes that cutting the rhizomes during shallow ploughing does not necessarily eliminate the plant. This helps explain its persistence in the cultivated sites he describes; it is not evidence that the species behaves as a weed everywhere in its range.