It grows wild along roadsides in Europe, western Asia and North Africa. Today it is known by the common names sticklewort or cocklebur. Agrimony can be found throughout much of the United States and southern Canada along roadsides, in wasteground, fields and woods. Upright stems are cylindrical ,brown and covered with hairs, bearing only a few branches. Leaves are downy, green and made up of coarsly-toothed leaflets arranged in large and small alternate pairs.
Flowers are numerous, small and yellow, borne on long spikes at the top of the stem.
It has a slightly bitter taste. It is currently used as an astringent to stop bleeding. European herbalists use it to heal ulcers and colitis. It can tolerate dry and slightly alkaline conditions. Agrimony can be easily propagated from seed sown in the spring or by dividing and by root division in the fall.