Yarrow broomrape grows on dry, moderately nutrient-rich sandy clayish compact soil, such as dunes along paths or where animals graze, floodplains, river dunes and along train tracks. Just like all broomrapes, it is a parasite and lives off of wormwood and yarrow species. It doesn’t produce chlorophyll so the plant is has no green parts. The flowers are blue-purple with a yellowish foot, while the stems and whatever leaves it may have are grayish blue. Yarrow broomrape is a very rare plant in the Netherlands, found mostly in the Holland dunes between Bergen and Goeree.