Galium aparine Cleavers

A very common, weedy, annual bedstraw whose rough stems are clothed in down-turned bristles which allow it to cling to other plants and scramble up through vegetation. The clusters of small white flowers give rise to small, spherical fruits covered in hooked bristles which will stick like velcro to animal fur, clothing or virtually anything (or anybody) that brushes past them, which helps to disperse the seeds. It is a very common plant of woodland, hedges, gardens, disturbed ground, waste places and coastal shingle. It is common in the lowlands of West Glamorgan. The name Cleavers in just one of very many names given to this plant. In The Englishman's Flora, Geoffrey Grigson (1958) lists more than 50 local names for it. Cleavers is rarely used as a name for it in south Wales where it is more commonly called Goose Grass or Bobby Buttons.

Native