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Achillea gracilis; photograph Jonathan Sowers, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF CC0Jonathan Sowers, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF

Achillea gracilis Raf.

Asteraceae · Labrador, New Brunswick +49

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Achillea gracilis Raf.: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, E.P.Perrier, 1917.

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Achillea gracilis, photograph Jonathan Sowers, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIFAchillea gracilis, photograph Jonathan Sowers, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIFAchillea gracilis, photograph Bryce, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFAchillea gracilis, photograph Becky Dill, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIFAchillea gracilis, photograph Becky Dill, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIFAchillea gracilis, photograph Becky Dill, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF 24 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-19.0°C
Record low -29.5 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
893mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
10–40DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes April to October, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

About the genus · Achillea

Achillea is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. The plants typically have frilly leaves and are known colloquially as yarrows, although this common name usually refers to A. millefolium. The genus was named after the Greek mythological character Achilles, whose soldiers were said to have used yarrow to treat their wounds; this is reflected by common names such as allheal and bloodwort. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Achillea", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (667 mm of 900 mm) falls in April to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 16.3 °C against a yearly mean of 9.2 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to April.

Rain

900 mm in the median year at the habitat, 667 mm of it April to October. Wettest month June at 111 mm, driest month January at 33 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 803 mm to 1,200 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 893 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 900 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 10 to 40 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 9, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -19.0 °C, the absolute minimum -29.5 °C, 6,325 frost nights in 44 years, 143.8 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -8.4 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -13.6 °C to -0.3 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.5 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -19.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 54 to 62% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -15 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Achillea gracilis through the yearWarmest month July, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -8.4 °C; 900 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-40°-20°0°20°40°frost33.1° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-29.5° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 10–40RH 54–62%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 104 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C-1 / -5–82 / -2–117 / 4–1514 / 12–2020 / 18–2525 / 23–2928 / 25–3226 / 25–3122 / 20–2715 / 13–218 / 5–151 / -3–10
Night °C-8 / -14–0-7 / -11–1-3 / -5–54 / 2–910 / 8–1416 / 13–1919 / 16–2218 / 16–2114 / 12–187 / 5–121 / -2–7-6 / -10–2
Rain mm33 / 20–8938 / 22–9453 / 41–10481 / 69–10096 / 84–117111 / 94–124107 / 90–131104 / 84–12195 / 83–10973 / 62–9764 / 46–9445 / 28–96
DLI12 / 11–1619 / 18–2126 / 25–2932 / 32–3637 / 37–3940 / 39–4239 / 38–4334 / 33–3827 / 26–3119 / 17–2412 / 11–1710 / 9–14
RH %62 / 56–6460 / 55–6256 / 54–5854 / 54–5656 / 55–5957 / 56–5958 / 57–6059 / 57–6158 / 56–6058 / 56–5959 / 56–6162 / 56–64
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 104 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (159 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 955:1913 (42.225, -84.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -29.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -19.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 104 distinct grid cells holding 159 of the 160 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 955:1913 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 42.00_-84.375, lapse-corrected -15 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 289 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeLabrador, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Guatemala · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker44.302, -89.897 · in the densest population, 81 records (47% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 172 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 159 of them in the land cells it reads, of 160 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 69 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 16 km away. 12 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 172 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Achillea gracilis, photograph 1did not loadAchillea gracilis, photograph 2did not loadAchillea gracilis, photograph 3did not loadAchillea gracilis, photograph 4did not loadAchillea gracilis, photograph 5did not loadAchillea gracilis, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Jonathan Sowers, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF (2); Bryce, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Becky Dill, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF (3).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Solidago riddellii Solidago riddellii Riddell's goldenrod Photo: CC BY, Ethan RoseLithospermum caroliniense Lithospermum caroliniense Boraginaceae Photo: CC BY, Kalvin ChanCarex bicknellii Carex bicknellii Bicknell's sedge Photo: CC BY, Connor McInerneyHeliopsis helianthoides Heliopsis helianthoides Rough oxeye Photo: CC BY-SA, psweetLysimachia quadriflora Lysimachia quadriflora Four-flowered yellow loosestrife Photo: CC BY, Katie KuceraAntennaria neglecta Antennaria neglecta Field pussytoes Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Achillea 47 in the reference

Achillea abrotanoides Achillea abrotanoides Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, David PereiraAchillea aegyptiaca Achillea aegyptiaca Asteraceae Photo: CC BY-SA, 阿橋 HQAchillea ageratifolia Achillea ageratifolia Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, David JacksonAchillea ageratum Achillea ageratum Sweet yarrow Photo: CC BY, zebedeugalinha Achillea aleppica Asteraceae Achillea alpina Achillea alpina Siberian yarrow Photo: CC BY, Matt BergerAchillea arabica Achillea arabica Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Гущина Ангелина ВикторовнаAchillea asiatica Achillea asiatica Asian Yarrow Photo: CC BY, Иван ПристремAchillea aspleniifolia Achillea aspleniifolia Asteraceae Photo: CC0, author not statedAchillea atrata Achillea atrata Black Yarrow Photo: CC0, author not statedAchillea biserrata Achillea biserrata Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Илья Руденко Achillea borealis Asteraceae all 48 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Achillea millefolium var. occidentalis; Achillea angustissima; Achillea eradiata; Achillea lanulosa; Achillea lanulosa f. lanulosa and 16 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Under another author Achillea tomentosa Pursh is an older name of this species, not Achillea tomentosa, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWikidata

The record

Family
Asteraceae
Described by
Raf.
Native to
Labrador, New Brunswick, Newfoundland +48
Wild records
172 in range · 69 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21GBIF's key 8298503 is Achillea gracilis E.P.Perrier, 1917; Kew accepts Achillea gracilis Raf., and the name is cited as Kew accepts it; its synonyms and common names are read from GBIF's Achillea gracilis Raf. (3120081), which GBIF files under Achillea millefolium var. occidentalis DC. (4215536) too
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-2125 read from GBIF's Achillea gracilis Raf. (3120081), which GBIF files under Achillea millefolium var. occidentalis DC. (4215536)
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 13 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (13 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 42.00_-84.375, lapse-corrected -15 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Achillea gracilis Raf. (the item's: IPNI none, POWO none)
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-21Wikipedia redirects Achillea gracilis to Achillea millefolium
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 1 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…