CATCHWEED BEDSTRAW
File Size: 71 KB
 
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
82 KB
Mitchell County, Kansas
Catchweed bedstraw leaves
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Mitchell County, Kansas
Catchweed bedstraw fruit
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Mitchell County, Kansas
Catchweed bedstraw fruit
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Mitchell County, Kansas
Catchweed bedstraw
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Mitchell County, Kansas
Catchweed bedstraw
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Riley County, Kansas
Catchweed bedstraw
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Riley County, Kansas
Catchweed bedstraw flowers
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Riley County, Kansas