Agrimony

Agrimonia eupatoria, common agrimony, is an erect perennial herb of the rose family, 30 to 100 cm tall, with a single softly hairy, often reddish stem rising from a short rhizome. The leaves are pinnately compound, with several pairs of large coarsely toothed leaflets interspersed with much smaller ones, grey-green and downy beneath, and faintly aromatic. The small, five-petalled, bright yellow flowers are borne in a long, slender, tapering terminal spike, opening in succession from the base upward. The fruit is a small, top-shaped, deeply grooved bur crowned with a ring of hooked bristles that catch on fur and clothing, aiding dispersal. Native to Europe, North Africa, and western Asia, agrimony grows in grassland, hedgerows, field margins, woodland edges, and roadsides on a range of soils.