Galium aparine

Galium aparine is called by so many different vernacular names that we are not even going to try to list them. In these parts we call it cleavers or goosegrass.

Galium, the name of the genus, is derived from the Greek word for milk because the flowers of some species of Galium were, and in some places still are, used to curdle milk for cheese-making. The species name, aparine, is another Greek derivative, this time from a word that means to grab or to hold.

The whole plant, stem, leaves and seeds, grabs hold using tiny hooks that help it climb through and over other plants. The seeds use their hooks to attach themselves to passing animals, including humans, and get carried safely away from the parent plant to new habitat.

Cleavers is an annual. In spring and summer it has tiny, almost invisible, white flowers that grow in small clusters from the leaf axils. The flowers are followed by the Velcro-like burrs which contain the seeds. After it has made seed, the plant dies: next year’s cleavers will germinate in the spring.

Who hasn’t attached cleavers’ burrs to the back of the person sitting at the desk in front of them? I know I did.