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United States / Grow / common yarrow

common yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
Photo: (c) Eric Lamb, some rights reserved (CC BY) (CC BY), via iNaturalist. Species-typical, not necessarily this cultivar.

common yarrow

Achillea millefolium · Asteraceae · all Achillea records · Wikipedia

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Form
perennial
Mature height
~3 ft
Water need
moderate
Rated in
California; Colorado / Rocky Mountain Front Range; Fremont County, Wyoming; Global +9
Uses
pasture
On this lot

1. Fire evidence and conditions

Fire evidence
Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
Fire-performance conditions
1 condition stated in cited fire-evidence rows.
Placement evidence
6 source placement records; source schemes remain separate.
Evidence regions
California; Colorado / Rocky Mountain Front Range; Fremont County, Wyoming; Global; Great Basin; Lake Tahoe Basin, Nevada and California; Marin County, California; Michigan / Great Lakes; Montana / Northern Rockies; Nevada / Great Basin; New Zealand; Northern Nevada / Great Basin; western WA
Typed publication scope: 10 scopes across 10 cited fire sources
  • Ignition-Resistant Landscape Plants (Fact Sheet 6.305) · Official scoped edition
    • CO; partial normalized coverage · 2025-07-01

      Colorado State University Extension and the Colorado State Forest Service publish Fact Sheet 6.305 for Colorado's WUI and varied ecosystems. FireApproved exposes all 114 exact source owners at Colorado publication scope while retaining score, elevation, water, and Idaho-carrier lineage. Publication scope is not suitability for every Colorado site or zone.

  • Fire Performance of Common Plants (Guide to Plants) · Official scoped edition
    • CA; partial normalized coverage · 2026-08-29

      The guide presents itself as fire performance ratings for common landscape plants in a fire-prone California setting. FireApproved publishes 104 exact owners as republished California context. It is not an independent rating, a current endorsement, or parcel suitability.

  • Fire-Resistant Plants Common to Marin County · Official scoped edition
    • Marin County (CA footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2019-01-01

      The publication is explicitly limited to plants common to Marin County. FireApproved publishes 104 exact owners as Marin regional context while retaining its placement, spacing, irrigation, and maintenance boundary. It is not statewide California guidance or parcel suitability.

  • Fremont County Firewise Plant List · Official scoped edition
    • Fremont County (WY footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2011-02-25

      The source identifies itself as the Fremont County Firewise Plant List. FireApproved publishes its 92 exact source owners as Fremont County regional context. No methodology, current county endorsement, statewide Wyoming scope, or site-specific suitability is inferred.

  • Firewise Plants for the Puget Sound Basin · Official scoped edition
    • Puget Sound Basin (WA footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2011-01-01

      King County's current wildfire page links this list for the Puget Sound Basin. FireApproved publishes 82 exact source owners as basin context, not statewide Washington guidance or a site-specific recommendation.

  • Defensible Space Landscaping in the Urban/Wildland Interface: A Compilation of Fire Performance Ratings of Residential Landscape Plants · Official scoped edition
    • CA; partial normalized coverage · 1997-07-01

      The UC Forest Products Laboratory says the guide covers properties of common California landscaping plants and was prepared for California fire agencies. FireApproved publishes 130 exact owners at historical California publication scope. The report is a 1997 compilation, not a current endorsement, site rating, or independent test of every row.

  • Wildfire-resistant Landscape Plants for Michigan (Extension Bulletin E2948) · Official scoped edition
    • MI; partial normalized coverage · 2007-01-01

      Michigan State University Extension Bulletin E2948 is explicitly a list of wildfire-resistant landscape plants for Michigan and includes a Michigan-native field. FireApproved publishes 221 exact GBIF owners from 226 represented source rows and holds 15 complex or non-exact rows. This dated publication scope is not a current site-suitability determination.

  • Fire-Resistant Plants for Montana Landscapes (MontGuide MT200101AG) · Official scoped edition
    • MT; partial normalized coverage · 2022-04-01

      The April 2022 MontGuide explicitly presents fire-resistant species adapted to Montana. FireApproved publishes 92 exact plant records from the source while retaining excluded genus, family, and unresolved rows; the guide itself says not every listed species grows in every part of the state.

  • Home Landscaping Guide for Lake Tahoe and Vicinity (Ed. Bulletin 06-01) · Official scoped edition
    • Lake Tahoe Basin (CA, NV footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2006-01-01

      Nevada Division of Forestry and University of Nevada Cooperative Extension publish Bulletin 06-01 for the Lake Tahoe Basin and vicinity. FireApproved publishes 83 exact rated owners as basin context across Nevada and California. Rough estimates are not statewide or site ratings.

  • A Compilation of Good Plant Choices for Nevada's High Fire Hazard Areas (SP-05-16) · Official scoped edition
    • NV; partial normalized coverage · 2005-01-01

      University of Nevada Cooperative Extension compiled plants suited to Nevada climate zones and reported favorably by at least two upstream firewise lists. FireApproved publishes 126 exact source owners at Nevada publication scope. The source explicitly makes no independent flammability determination, so these rows remain corroborative.

2. Why this plant is relevant here

State distribution
Documented in AK, AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, HI, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV, WY.
Introduced / established
6 sourced range or established records. This is not an invasive warning.
USDA hardiness
2 applicable cited hardiness statements overlap but have different boundaries; compare each complete source row.

3. Legal, ecological, and broader status

Reported invasive here
1 ecological invasive report.
How to read this page

The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.

Native and introduced range evidence

These are exact U.S. botanical-area records from the cited range source. Native and introduced describe biogeographic relationship, not fire performance or planting approval. Doubtful and extinct rows stay visible but do not count as current presence.

Current native

0

exact source areas

Current introduced

6

exact source areas

Qualified

0

doubtful or extinct source rows

6 introduced source areas · World Checklist of Vascular Plants, version 16 v16, as of 2026-06-04
  • Hawaii (HI)
  • Massachusetts (MA)
  • New Jersey (NJ)
  • New York (NY)
  • Pennsylvania (PA)
  • Texas (TX)

The lossless worldwide derivative is retained once in the research corpus; object pages repeat only exact U.S. areas needed by the local lens. The JSON twin carries the same page assertions.

Plant hardiness evidence

These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.

Conditions in the fire evidence

These describe tested or rated plant material. They are not horticultural maintenance instructions.

Where its sources say to plant it

Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating. They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.

The evidence

Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself (a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.

Recommends (13)

Corroboration (6 rows from 6 sources)

  • Fire-Resistant Plants Common to Marin County — Fire Safe Marin · 2019 · original source Corroboration Expert-curated lineage: partially-independent

    “listed as fire-resistant” · condition: irrigated

    Fire Safe Marin lists this taxon among fire-resistant plants common to Marin County.

  • A Compilation of Good Plant Choices for Nevada's High Fire Hazard Areas (SP-05-16) — University of Nevada Cooperative Extension · SP-05-16 (2005) · original source Corroboration Compilation lineage: unr-tree

    “listed by at least two cited sources”

    Compilation marks: UCFPL 1997, MT200101AG.

  • Home Landscaping Guide for Lake Tahoe and Vicinity (Ed. Bulletin 06-01) — Nevada Division of Forestry / University of Nevada Cooperative Extension · Bulletin 06-01 (2006) · original source Corroboration Compilation lineage: unr-tree

    “low — Yarrow — Achillea millefolium”

    Table 1's Fire Hazard column prints “low” for this taxon. The guide calls the rating a rough estimate of potential flammability, not a result of scientific trials. Its footnote says plants that turn brown often become high fire hazards and tells readers to mow grasses and forbs when they begin to turn brown.

  • Defensible Space Landscaping in the Urban/Wildland Interface: A Compilation of Fire Performance Ratings of Residential Landscape Plants — University of California Forest Products Laboratory · Internal Report 36.01.137 (July 1997) · original source Corroboration Compilation lineage: ucfpl-berkeley

    “RECOMMENDED by 4 references for use in high fire risk areas.”

    1997 Landscape Vegetation Database row: Achillea millefolium (Common Yarrow). Preserved UCFPL transcription marker: F4.

  • Fremont County Firewise Plant List — Fremont County Firewise · web page (server last-modified 2011-02-25) · original source Corroboration Compilation lineage: unknown

    “Fremont County Firewise Plant List — Achillea lanulosa — Native Yarrow”

    Listed in the source's Ground Covers section; the page describes its listed Firewise plants as generally low-growing, low-debris, and relatively moist.

  • Fire Performance of Common Plants (Guide to Plants) — Diablo Firesafe Council · live page captured 2026-08-29 · original source Corroboration Mirror lineage: ucfpl-berkeley resolves to Defensible Space Landscaping in the Urban/Wildland Interface: A Compilation of Fire Performance Ratings of Residential Landscape Plants

    “Table 1: favorable fire performance rating in 3 or more references (refs 25, 40,41, 53)”

    The Diablo Firesafe Council Guide to Plants lists Achillea millefolium white (White yarrow) as shrub, perennial, in Table 1: plants with a favorable fire performance rating in 3 or more references. The guide cites 4 of its 57 numbered references for this row (25, 40,41, 53). The guide states the ranking terms in its underlying references were mostly undefined and makes no attempt to rank within the list, and that fire performance is compromised without maintenance.

Listed without a rating (2)
Corroboration (2 rows from 1 source)

  • FLAMITS: FLAMmability plant traiTS database — Dryad / Global Ecology and Biogeography · Dryad version 9 · original source Corroboration Trait database lineage: meta-aggregator

    2 cited rows from this source; its identity, lineage and tier are stated once.

    • Primary study Hogenbirk1995: Hogenbirk, J.C., & Sarrazin-Delay, C.L. (1995). Using fuel characteristics to estimate plant ignitability for fire hazard reduction. Water Air Soil Pollut, 82, 161–170.

      Shared row context: Combustibility measurement; plant part stems; predrying yes; device calorimeter; site Hogenbirk1995-1; sampling june.

      • “calorific value (kcal/kg): 4469.52”

        FLAMITS record 4981; fuel dead.

      • “calorific value (kcal/kg): 4175.98”

        FLAMITS record 4989; fuel live.

Same genus in the directory · the Achillea group page

Last verified 2026-08-23. JSON (CC BY 4.0)

Profiles: USDA PLANTS · GBIF · iNaturalist · Wikidata · Wikipedia · ITIS

Achillea millefolium (Common yarrow). FireApproved. https://fireapproved.com/plants/achillea-millefolium/. Last verified 2026-08-23.