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Cleavers Herb Cut & Sifted, Wild Crafted

Cleavers Herb Cut & Sifted, Wild Crafted

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Cleavers

Galium aparine
plant overview
cleavers, teas and topical infusions

Cleavers herb, also known as goosegrass, kisses, sticky willy, stickyweed and a variety of other common names, is a common annual groundcover usually found thriving in abandoned lots and waste places. Although the plant exudes a sap when plucked, the “sticky” factor responsible for so many of the plant’s nicknames comes from the hairs that cover the plant and act as tiny hooks. Like nettles, the entire plant is edible when cooked to remove the hooked hairs, but the dried cleavers herb is more commonly used in teas and to make topical infusions and washes.

A Bit of Botany

a little botanical information about cleavers

description
Cleavers are herbaceous annual plants of the family Rubiaceae. Cleavers creep along the ground and over the tops of other plants, attaching themselves with the small hooked hairs which grow out of the stems and leaves. The stems can reach up to three feet or longer, and are angular or square shaped.

The leaves are simple, narrowly oblanceolate to linear, and borne in whorls of six to eight.

Cleavers have tiny, star-shaped, white to greenish flowers, which emerge from early spring to summer. The flowers are clustered in groups of two or three, and are borne out of the leaf axils. The globular fruits grow clustered 1-3 seeds together; and are covered with hooked hairs (a burr) which cling to animal fur, aiding in seed dispersal.

common names & nomenclature
The generic name is derived from gala, the Greek word for milk—this because a plant of the Galium genus was used in antiquity as a means to curdle milk to make cheese. Numerous references assert that the etymology of the species name is aparo, the Greek word for "seize"—the implication being that the plant seizes (cleaves to) anything that passes, same reason for the common name of cleavers.

Also known as:
bedstraw, catchweed, clabber grass, clivers, cleavers, coachweed, cleaverwort, gravel grass, grip grass, goose grass, goose hair, gosling weed, hedge burrs, milk sweet, poor robin, loveman, stick-a-back, sweethearts, savoyan, scratchweed, barweed, hedgeheriff, robin-run-in-the-grass, mutton chops, everlasting friendship, stickywilly, amor de hortelano, ladies' straw

 Although the plant imparts a honey-like fragrance while in bloom, it tastes somewhat bitter. For this reason, its culinary use is largely limited to soups and stews. The dried and roasted seeds of the plant, however, reputedly make an excellent coffee substitute. Native American tribes used the leaf in love medicine.

Formulas and recipes
Cleavers Tea Recipe
-Fill a pitcher with 2 cups of cool water
-Fill mesh tea bag with 2 tablespoons of dried cleaver–stems and all
-Let steep at room temperature for 8-12 hours
-Add sweetener and enjoy!

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