Leaves

Simple, narrow oblanceolate to linear leaves up to 1.5cm long and mounted in whorls of six to eight leaves around the stem. The leaves also have small hooked hairs.

Flowers

Tiny, star-shaped, four petalled, white/green flowers, clustered in groups of two or three and growing out of the leaf axils.

Seeds

Stem

Creeping and ground based, although they will climb up other plants, walls, fences etc. attaching themselves with small hooked hairs. The stems are angular/square shaped.

Fruit

Small globular burrs, with one to three seeds clustered together, also covered in the small hooked hairs to aid their dispersal as they get stung on clothing and animal fur.

Taste

Not unlike cucumber

Frequency & law

Very, very common and not restricted

The nuanced bit

Cleavers has an amazing amount of common names, not least of all those which cause giggling amongst children and puerile adults like me!

Possible confusion

Other bedstraws (Galium spp.) can look very similar with their whorled leaves, but bedstraws don’t have the tiny, hooked hairs.

Habitat

The species is native to a wide region of Europe, North Africa and Asia. 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.

How to harvest

Leaves and stems for food are usually collected throughout the spring. For medicinal purposes, collect during the spring and dehydrate for later use. The seed balls are harvested in autumn when they have turned brown, for a coffee substitute.

Cooking tips

Young leaves and stems can be eaten, but should be thoroughly cooked to make them palatable.

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.

Folklore

In 1920s southern England, it was believed that if a girl had cleavers stuck to her back and she didn’t realise, she has an admirer. If she removed the cleavers and dropped it, the initial of her admirer would appear.