Achillea millefolium.

Its name comes from Achilles. The legend says he carried it onto the battlefields of Troy to stop his soldiers' bleeding, and French kept the trace of it in the plant's common names: herbe aux militaires, herbe à la coupure, saigne-nez. Three thousand years later the traditional use hasn't moved, and the species grows spontaneously in our fields and ditches.

White yarrow, or common yarrow, is a native plant of simple, luminous beauty, deeply tied to the meadows, clearings and wild landscapes of our region. Fine and elegant, it deploys delicately cut, almost feathery foliage in a soft green that brings texture and lightness to the garden. All summer long, its slender stems carry wide umbels of small white flowers gathered into delicate clouds.

Seen from a distance, yarrow seems to float above the grasses, drawing a crowd of pollinators: bees, butterflies and beneficial insects find refuge and abundant food there. Its flat umbels are particularly precious to hoverflies and parasitoid wasps — those tiny short-tongued helpers that can't reach the nectar of large deep flowers, and that rid the vegetable garden of its aphids. Hardy, resilient and generous, this perennial adapts easily to poor soils and dry periods.

It grows with a natural grace where many other plants struggle to establish themselves, bringing a country, soothing touch to ecological gardens and naturalistic plantings. With its free, wild allure, native white yarrow evokes the great summer meadows bathed in light, the wind in the tall grass and the quiet beauty of plants that live in harmony with their territory.

Grower's tip, and an honest warning: yarrow spreads by underground rhizomes. In a flowering meadow or a naturalistic planting, that's exactly what you want; in a small tidy bed, it will eventually travel over to the neighbours. Give it room, or contain it. For sowing: very fine seeds laid on the surface without covering — light triggers emergence — germination in 10 to 14 days. Direct-sow in spring or fall. Cutting the stems back after the first flowering often brings a second wave in late summer, and dividing the clump every three years keeps it vigorous.

• Open-pollinated. Native perennial, very hardy. Insect-pollinated.
• Height: 45 to 90 cm in flower, low rosette foliage.
• Flowering from June to September. Flat umbels: excellent for short-tongued beneficial insects.
• Spreads by rhizomes: perfect in a flowering meadow, to be contained in a small bed.
• Exposure: full sun.
• Poor to ordinary, well-drained soil. Very drought-tolerant once established.
• Sow on the surface without covering, in spring or fall.