Galium aparine, with common names including cleavers, clivers, catchweed, robin-run-the-hedge, goosegrass, and sticky willy, is an annual, herbaceous plant of the family Rubiaceae.
Names
Galium aparine is known by a variety of common names in English. They include sweetheart, hitchhikers, cleavers,[2]clivers, bedstraw, (small) goosegrass,[2]catchweed,[2]stickyweed, sticky bob,[3]stickybud, stickyback, sticky molly, robin-run-the-hedge, sticky willy,[2][4]sticky willow, stickyjack, stickeljack, grip grass, sticky grass, bobby buttons, whippysticks, velcro plantandsticky plants.[5][6]
Galium is Dioscorides' name for the plant. It is derived from the Greek word for milk, because the flowers of Galium verum were used to curdle milk in cheese making.[7]Aparine is a name used by Theophrastus. It means 'clinging' or 'seizing',[7] and is derived from the Greek απαίρωapairo 'lay hold of, seize', itself coming from από 'from' + αίρω 'pull to lift'.[8]
Description
Cleavers are annuals with creeping straggling stems which branch and grow along the ground and over other plants. They attach themselves with the small hooked hairs which grow out of the stems and leaves. The stems can reach up to 1.2 metres (4 ft) tall,[9] and are angular or square shaped.[10] The leaves are simple, narrowly oblanceolate to linear, and borne in whorls of six to eight.[10][11][12]
Cleavers have tiny, star-shaped, white to greenish flowers, which emerge from early spring to summer. The flowers are clustered in groups of two or three, and are borne out of the leaf axils.[13] The corolla bears 4 petals.[14] The globular fruits are burrs which grow one to three seeds clustered together; they are covered with hooked hairs which cling to animal fur and human clothing, aiding in seed dispersal.[13]
The species is native to a wide region of Europe, North Africa and Asia from Britain and the Canary Islands to Japan. It is now naturalized throughout most of the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America, South America, Australia, New Zealand, some oceanic islands and scattered locations in Africa. Whether it is native to North America is a question of some debate, but it is considered to be native there in most literature.[18] It is considered a noxious weed in many places.[19][20]
Ecology
The plant can be found growing in hedges and waste places, limestone scree and as a garden weed.[21][22]
G. aparine prefers moist soils and can exist in areas with poor drainage. It reportedly flourishes in heavy soils with above-average nitrogen and phosphorus content, and prefers soils with a pH value between 5.5 and 8.0. G. aparine is often found in post-fire plant communities in the United States, likely developing from onsite seed and therefore rendering controlled burns as an ineffective means of removing G. aparine in areas where it is considered a noxious weed.[23]
Geese frequently consume the plant, hence the common names "goosegrass".[24] Many insects feed on it, including aphids and spittlebugs.
For some people, contact with the plant can cause skin irritation. Although the plant's hairs are small, they can scratch more sensitive parts of the skin.[26] Numerous such scratches can resemble a rash.
Uses
Culinary
Galium aparine is edible. The leaves and stems of the plant can be cooked as a leaf vegetable if gathered before the fruits harden.[9] However, the numerous small hooks which cover the plant and give it its clinging nature can make it less palatable if eaten raw.[27][28] Cleavers are in the same family as coffee. The fruits of cleavers have often been dried and roasted, and then used as a coffee substitute which contains less caffeine.[10][29]
Folk medicine
Poultices and washes made from cleavers were traditionally used to treat a variety of skin ailments, light wounds and burns.[30] As a pulp, it has been used to relieve venomous bites and stings.[31] To make a poultice, the entire plant is used, and applied directly to the affected area.[32] Making a tea with the dried leaves is most common.[33] It can be brewed hot or cold. For a cold infusion, steep in water and refrigerate for 24–48 hours.
Other uses
Dioscorides reported that ancient Greek shepherds would use the barbed stems of cleavers to make a "rough sieve", which could be used to strain milk. Carl Linnaeus later reported the same usage in Sweden, a tradition that is still practised in modern times.[30][34]
In Europe, the dried, matted foliage of the plant was once used to stuff mattresses. Several of the bedstraws were used for this purpose because the clinging hairs cause the branches to stick together, which enables the mattress filling to maintain a uniform thickness.[28][35] The roots of cleavers can be used to make a permanent red dye.[36]
Children in Britain and Ireland have historically used cleavers as a form of entertainment. The tendency for the leaves and stems to adhere to clothing is used in various forms of play, such as mock camouflage and various pranks.
Photos
Cleavers, creeping together over the tops of other plants on the forest floor.
Leaves and stem of G. aparine. Notice the angular stem and whorled oblong/lanceolate leaves.
Flower and fruit of G. aparine. The fruit is an adhesive burr that clings to animals passing by to spread the seed.
Galium aparine, closeup with leaves and fruit, from Cologne, Germany
Closeup of G. aparine leaf. Note the hooked barbs used to climb over substrate.
Closeup of the hooked barb (160x)
Galium aparine pre-fruiting development, from North America.
^Webb, D.A., Parnell, J. and Doogue, D. 1996. An Irish Flora. Dundalgan Press (W.Tempest) Ltd. Dundalk. 0-85221-131-7
^ abGrieve, Maud (1971). "Clivers". A Modern Herbal: The Medicinal, Culinary, Cosmetic and Economic Properties, Cultivation and Folk-lore of Herbs, Grasses, Fungi, Shrubs, & Trees with All Their Modern Scientific Uses, Volume 1. Dover Publications. p. 206. ISBN9780486227986.
^Parnell, J. and Curtis, T. 2012 Webb's An Irish Flora Cork University Press. ISBN978-185918-4783
^Iridoids from Galium aparine. D Deliorman, I Çalis, and F Ergun, Pharmaceutical Biology, 2001, Vol. 39, No. 3, Pages 234–235, doi:10.1076/phbi.39.3.234.5928
^ abAntifeedant activity of an anthraquinone aldehyde in Galium aparine L. against Spodoptera litura F. Masanori Morimoto, Kumiko Tanimoto, Akiko Sakatani and Koichiro Komai, Phytochemistry, May 2002, Volume 60, Issue 2, Pages 163–166, doi:10.1016/S0031-9422(02)00095-X
^Hackney, P. (Ed)1992. Stewart & Corry's Flora of the North-east of Ireland. Third Edition. Institute of Irish Studies, The Queen's University of Belfast. ISBN0 85389 446 9
^Clapham, A.R., Tutin, T.G. and Warburg, E.F. 1968. Excursion Flora of the British Isles. Second Edition. Cambridge University Press.
^Gucker, Corey. "Galium aparine". Fire Effects Information System. United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory. Retrieved 14 February 2017.
^A new species of Cecidophyes (Acari: Eriophyidae) from Galium aparine (Rubiaceae) with notes on its biology and potential as a biological control agent for Galium spurium. Charnie Craemer, Rouhollah Sobhian, Alec S. McClay and James W. Amrine Jr., International Journal of Acarology, 1999, Volume 25, Issue 4, pages 255–263, doi:10.1080/01647959908684162
^ abGrieve, Maud (1971). "Clivers". A Modern Herbal: The Medicinal, Culinary, Cosmetic and Economic Properties, Cultivation and Folk-lore of Herbs, Grasses, Fungi, Shrubs, & Trees with All Their Modern Scientific Uses, Volume 1. Dover Publications. p. 207. ISBN9780486227986.
^Jones, Pamela. Just Weeds: History, Myths, and Uses. Prentice Hall Press, New York. 1991.
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