Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Catchweed bedstraw

CATCHWEED BEDSTRAW

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Galium aparine L.

Mitchell County, Kansas

Annual

Height: Generally less than 20 inches

Family: Rubiaceae - Madder Family

Flowering Period: May, June, July

Also Called:

Cleavers.

Stems:

Reclining, 4-60 inches long, usually scrambling, forming dense tangles, seldom branched, 4-angled, edges with prickly hairs.

Leaves:

Mostly whorled, 6-8 leaves per whorl; blades simple, linear-oblanceolate, .75 to 3.25 inches long, less than 1/3 inch wide, broadest above middle, 1-nerved, margins and lower midrib rough-hairy, tip with sharp firm point.

Inflorescences:

Cymes, mostly 3-5-flowered, terminal or on stalks from leaf axils.

Flowers:

Calyx absent; corolla white, less than 1/12 inch wide; lobes 4.

Fruits:

Nearly spherical, less than 1/2 inch in diameter, bristly or rough-hairy; carpels 2; seeds 1 per carpel, grayish-brown.

Habitat:

Damp areas of prairies, waste ground, roadsides, thickets, and woods; often in shady sites with alluvial soils.

Distribution:

Throughout Kansas.

Forage Value:

Livestock will eat the plant and pheasants, prairie chickens, and wild turkeys will eat the seeds.

Uses:

Native Americans used an infusion of the plant to treat itches and poison ivy and took it as a laxative. The dried and roasted fruits have been used to make a coffee-like beverage.

Comments:

Catchweed bedstraw can be a problem weed. The mature fruits will cling (cleave) to clothing and skin due to the tiny bristly hairs.

Catchweed bedstraw