Cleavers – A Common Little Known Herb

Galium aparine

Also, Known As:

• Catchweed
• Cleavers
• Goose Grass

Cleavers, botanical name Galium aparine, is a herb-like annual plant that is found growing in damp or verdant locales as well as besides the banks or rivers and along the fences in eastern United States, Canada as well as the Pacific coast. Belonging to the plant family Rubiaceae, cleavers has a thin taproot that gives rise to a frail, rectangular, prostrate or climbing thorny stem that grows up to a length of anything between two feet to six feet. This herbaceous annual plant produces coarse leaves whose shape varies from oblong to the head of a lance to nearly straight or linear. The leaves of cleavers appear in whorls of about six to eight encircling the stem. Cleavers bears diminutive flowers having white or greenish-white hues during the period between May and September. Cleavers gives off a potent smell similar to…